


Times of War

by thomasjeffersonsmacaroni



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Gen, NaNoWriMo 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-15 07:24:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 40,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9224831
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thomasjeffersonsmacaroni/pseuds/thomasjeffersonsmacaroni
Summary: So this is what I did during NaNoWriMo. Notice how it isn't part of my The Other 51 series?





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> So this is what I did during NaNoWriMo. Notice how it isn't part of my The Other 51 series?

The light from the torch shone on the dark hallway, quiet footsteps barely a whisper as Nicolas Greyhawk walked through the castle that he called his home. It was nighttime, and his wife and children were asleep. He would not disturb them.

The left side of the hallway through which he now walked was blue, decorated with portraits of his predecessors, with him and his family at the very end. The right side was red - for now - and empty, but the ghosts of the paintings that had once been there still stood in a line. He would have to repaint it blue as well.

To get to his destination, Nicolas had to walk through the servants' quarters, a place that he usually did not deign to even think about. Sure enough, they were dirty, so dirty that his blue robe practically turned black, and small children were huddled around a single candle whispering to each other, though they quickly stopped when they heard him walk through. Normally, the king would interrogate them, maybe subject them to torture if they refused to talk about their whispers. He had been doing that a lot this past week. But tonight, he was tired, and he had an important mission to complete. So he walked through the small quarters, down other hallways that were practically destroyed, until he finally reached the big wooden door that was the entrance to his destination.

 _The library._ It had been established by the founder of the Greyhawk house, Gabriel Greyhawk the First. For as long as Nico could remember, it had loomed in the castle that he called home, filled with all of the knowledge that Greyhawk House had access too, which, as far as he was concerned, was all knowledge in the world. Until today.

Nicolas transferred the torch to his left hand and opened the door with his right. The flame crept down the wooden stick, dangerously close to his dark skin, but he had never been afraid of fire. Especially not now.

When he stepped inside, it was empty, and he had the instinctive reaction of awe at the rows of bookshelves that reached up just above his tall figure. Still holding the torch, Nicolas stepped forward, admiring the books, looking for the one that he wanted.

 _Ah, yes. That one._ The book's thick, worn spine read _The Royalty of Cantermound, A History._ With the index finger of his right hand, Nicolas took the book out, opened it to the end, where his scribe had recently recorded information, and brought the torch down, setting the page - and, by extension, the book - on fire.

 _Damn the Meynes_ , Nicolas thought, watching the flame spread with a blank expression on his face. _Damn them all to hell_.

 _To HELL!_ Face now twisted in anger, Nicolas threw the book in front of him, spreading the fire along the shelves and through the books. He had originally wanted to only destroy a few select histories, just to erase any memory that anyone may have had of the Meynes, but he didn't care about any of that, not now that he was getting the beautiful feeling of satisfaction from watching it all burn.

He continued like a madman, racing through the library, setting on fire every shelf and every book that he could see. When all of them were burning, he moved on to the walls, stabbing the tapestries and the decorations and any other evidence that there once had been someone else besides him. There was no sight but the pyre that he had created, no sound but the hiss and crackle of the flame, no smell but the smoke that was quickly filling the room, no taste but sweet, sweet victory.

_Only us now. Only me._

His robe was on fire, and it was spreading to his shirt and to his clothes and even to his beard, but he didn't, couldn't, wouldn't care about that, or anything else, ever again. The fire spread along his body as it spread through the room, burning his skin with immeasurable pain, but he hardly felt it as he made his way to the other end of what had once been the library.

It was only when he arrived at the final shelf that he collapsed onto his knees, head turning to stare at the books in front of him as he fell once more onto his stomach. And it was only then that the consistent pain was compounded by a flash of something very heavy falling on top of him, flattening his ear.

 _Another book._ The fire had apparently passed it by, and when Nicolas picked it up, he saw why; the cover was made of some sort of fireproof material that he did not recognize. Hands weakening, vision disappearing and turning darker and darker, he shoved it into the fire once more, watching the pages, which did not seem to be made of the same stuff, burn away. He had little concept of what he was doing, only of the fact that he was in pain, and only of one single thought.

 _Damn the Meynes_.

The cover said some words, and of course there were words on the inside, but he could not read them through the darkness of his vision, and even if he could, he would not care about their contents. He would die soon, but he would die having completed his mission.

The book fell from Nicolas's hands, and he could see that beyond the burning pages there was something else, made of the same fireproof material as the cover, only thinner, and there was a single sentence written on it.

 _The Meynes will rise again,_ he could barely read, was the last thing he saw before his vision went entirely black.


	2. Valeria

_Ding, ding, ding!_

The servants' bell rang, as it always did, signaling the time when Valeria Greyhawk was supposed to wake up. Feeling more tired than usual, she opened her eyes and began to get out of bed. It was only as she was putting on her slippers and moving towards her closet that Val realized that it was darker outside than it usually was, as if she had been woken up earlier than usual.

 _Maybe there's an emergency._ In case it was a servant, Val picked up her blanket, wrapped it around her body, and moved to open her door. On the other end were her little siblings, Gabriel and Emilia.

"Vally! You got a letter!" Mili, the younger one, was jumping up and down in excitement, waving a small white envelope. Gabriel, the older, was standing next to her, trying to look apologetic but instead looking just as excited as his younger sister.

"Does it have a black seal? I told you not to wake me up unless it does."

For the first time, Mili stopped, examining the letter closely.

"No, it doesn't. It's just a regular white one."

"Okay. Don't wake me up if it looks like this anymore, okay?"

"Okay." Mili looked downcast as she moved to leave, so Val leaned down and wrapped both of her younger siblings into a hug.

"Good morning, you guys."

Both of them were smiling as they left and Val closed the door. She was fully awake by now, so she put the letter on her desk, made her bed, and looked at her closet.

 _No special occasions today. So no fancy gowns._ After a moment's consideration, Val picked out one that was a light purple - it would easily complement her dark skin, and it was comfortable enough to get her through the day - and put it on while opening the envelope.

 _Your Royal Highness,_ it read.

_I very much admire the dedication that you have been putting into your work to normalize same-sex activity in our kingdom._

_He'd better._ Ever since Val had been a girl and found out that people of the same sex could not get married to each other, and it was seen as only experimentation and not true love, she had been working tirelessly to convince the stubborn jury of the kingdom to change the law, as well as to convince small-folk to accept it and join her cause. Her parents, and everyone else for that matter, had thought that she would get over it in a day or two, maybe a week, but months and even years had passed, and the cause still took up an overwhelming majority of Val's time.

 _However,_ the letter continued, _I must say that I am rather confused. I was under the impression that you were a woman who was interested in men; I have seen you admire them at formal events, and I have heard rumors that you were courting a prince from the neighboring kingdom. Please respond if you can; this is quite a pressing concern for me, and I am curious as to what your stance is._

A younger version of her would have responded angrily, but she had been trained, especially by her parents and her older brother Carlos, to stay calm and reasonable. Not everyone, they told her, was as educated as she was on this issue. So instead, when she had changed into her dress and tied her hair into a high ponytail, she wrote out a reasonable response, the gist of which was that she was bisexual, or interested in both men and women, and that anyone was welcome to join the cause, even if they were not attracted to the same sex.

 _If you would like more information,_ she finalized her letter, _you are more than welcome to come to one of the meetings, or send me another letter, and I will respond promptly._ She waited a couple of minutes for the ink to dry, then folded the piece of parchment up, put it into an envelope, took it, and left her room to go downstairs for breakfast.

While walking down the stairs, Val ran into Carlos, her older brother. He, too, was dressed casually, and he stopped in his tracks so that they could walk side by side.

"You're up early. Did Mili wake you up again?"

"Uh-huh. She wanted to give me a letter. It was another person who doesn't understand the concept of bisexuality."

"Ugh, those get annoying after a while. I don't blame you for getting angry."

"I know. So, how's that asshole king from the Northern Isles coming along?"

"Oh my god, don't even get me started. You know I'm good at negotiating, but I've tried literally everything with him, and he's still angry at us for some reason. I'm afraid that we're going to have to go into a war, and you know in those practices that Mom and Dad did with us, I've always been terrible at the war ones. I don't think our kingdom can handle a war, to be honest." Carlos's face was a mixture of frustration and fear, and Val placed a hand on his shoulder to comfort him.

"I hope we don't have a war, either. But even if we did, you wouldn't be in charge of much. You're still the prince, not the king."

"I know. But I will be someday. And I honestly don't know what I would do if there was a war. God, I'm so nervous. I hate the Northern Isles so much."

"Me too, Carlos, me too," said Val sympathetically, and her brother looked at her with sadness.

"But hey," she added after a moment, smile crossing her face, "if we get into a war, we'll have an advantage because Mom doesn't have a frog face."

Carlos tried to look serious at first, but then he giggled in spite of himself. "And she isn't balloon shaped."

"Or wrinkly."

"And she actually showers more than once per year."

When Val and Carlos entered the dining hall, laughing hysterically, Gabriel and Mili were already there, eating breakfast and chatting with the servants.

"Hi, Gab. Hi, Mili. Where's Dad?" Carlos asked as he sat down at his usual seat.

"King Sebastian Greyhawk is accompanying Queen Magdalena for a meeting with King Patrick of Olivannia," a servant explained.

"Olivannia," Val whispered to Carlos. "Isn't that the one who won't accept that Mom is the principal ruler and not Dad?"

Carlos rolled his eyes. "Uh-huh. It gets really annoying during negotiations because you'll, like, have Mom trying to say something, but he'll just straight up completely ignore her until Dad says the exact same thing."

" _Jesus_."

"Carlos, Vally, do you want to see my sword?" Mili asked excitedly, practically jumping from her seat and running over to her siblings.

"Of course! Do you have it with you right now?" Val turned around and put down the fork with which she was already starting on her sausage.

"Yes, I do. Daniel made it for me."

Still bouncing in place, Mili reached into the belt that secured her simple brown dress and pulled out a short wooden sword.

"He says all swords have names. So I named this one Eaglethorn."

"A fine name for a fine blade," Carlos said with approval.

"No swords at the table," one of the servants - Janice, judging by the sound of her voice - called from across the room.

"It's not at the table," Mili pointed out, still holding her weapon. "It's next to it."

"Let her have it," Val said, smiling. "We don't have guests."

"Charles said that I shouldn't have it because I'm a girl and it's not proper," Mili said, voice now indignant.

"Tell him that in our kingdom, we can be anything that we want to be," Carlos said, gently but as if he was trying to hide his anger. "And that includes letting you have a sword."

"Also, tell him that he's a sexist pig and can shove his opinions up his as-butthole," Val added, the words coming out louder and angrier than she had intended them to be.

" _Valeria!_ " Janice scolded, but Mili was giggling.

"I can shove this sword up his butthole, too," she said through her laughs.

"Yeah, do that," said Val. "I support you completely."

Mili went back to her seat, sword in her belt, and Carlos looked over at his younger sister, amusement evident in his dark brown eyes.

"Val, this is why I'm the heir to the throne and not you."

"Oh, hush. I'm right, you know."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But sometimes, during negotiations, you're right, but the other person doesn't think so. You just have to talk less and smile more."

Another one of the servants crossed over to their end of the table.

"Your Royal Highness, Valeria, you have a piano lesson today."

"At what time?"

"Twelve o'clock."

"Tell Sir Aaron that I won't be able to attend. I have a meeting for my cause today. It's very important."

"Very well, I will tell him. Would later in the day today work?"

"Yes, I think I will be free at seven."

"Very well."

The servant walked away, and the two siblings resumed eating.

"Carl, you promised to come to my meeting today," Val reminded him.

"I remember. Right after breakfast, right?"

"Yep."

After they finished eating, Gabriel and Mili left to complete their lessons with the castle tutor, and Carlos and Val left and went to the tavern where Val held her meetings. A few people were already there; Val recognized some of the regulars, as well as a few new people who looked a combination of nervous and excited. The tavern keeper, used to their weekly meetings, had already laid out several plates of food on the long wooden table, which included eggs, bacon, and a whole roast chicken. Val sat down at the head and grabbed a leg before starting.

"Thank you all for joining me here today. This is my brother, Carlos. He'll be helping me head this meeting." Around the table were nods of agreement and murmurs of awe; Val knew very well that her brother was popular among the peasants of the capital.

"Has there been any progress on starting another chapter in the other regions of this kingdom?" she asked Amelia, who was sitting on the right side of the table.

"In the East, I talked to my cousin and some friends," she said, "and they're working on spreading the word and creating a group. No word on the others, though."

"Well, any progress is good progress, as I always say." Val smiled at the younger girl, who looked as if she were about to blush.

"Your Royal Highness, have you made any progress with talking to the judges?" a boy from the far end of the table asked.

"You don't have to call me 'Your Royal Highness,'" she said to him. "You can call me Valeria or Val. And sadly, no. They remain adamant about the law, which is why I'm trying to rally as many people as possible from everywhere in the kingdom so they can see that a large majority wants same-sex marriage to be legalized. Then there's a larger chance of them changing the law."

"Excuse me, may I talk?" Another girl, who looked like a newcomer, spoke up.

"Yes, of course."

"Next week is the Festival of Stars," the girl said, "so many of our citizens will be coming to the capital. If we organized a parade of some sort, or a rally, it would probably help us attract new people to our cause."

"The most people tend to come in the middle of the week," Carlos put in, speaking for the first time since the meeting's beginning. "We can probably organize something on Wednesday. What do you think, Val?"

The head of the group nodded in approval. "That's an amazing idea. What do the rest of you think?"

"You'll need to make a speech, Valeria," someone said. "Maybe appeal to emotion. After all, this is a very emotional cause."

"Maybe we can have testimonials from actual people who want to marry their same-sex partner," someone else suggested.

The meeting's secretary, Thomas, meticulously wrote everything down in the group's notebook, and when the meeting ended after another couple of hours, Val took the notebook and began to look through it as she and Carlos left.

"You're _really_ determined to get this passed, aren't you?" Val's brother asked with amusement. "I mean, you've met every week for, like, _years_. I still can't believe that I've only been to a few."

"You should come more often," Val said. "People love you."

"I'll try to, I promise."

"Good. Because I'm not stopping until we reach our goal."


	3. Gabriella

The marketplace of the capital was filled with noise, friends' chatter and angry negotiations and even a brawl or two compounding in volume as the day progressed, but Gabriella focused on it as little as possible as she held her dagger in one hand and a dead rabbit in the other. Her brother, Simon, walked by her side, arms filled with other small animals, all dead, their corpses cleaned but the meat raw.

"Do you see anyone?" she asked him, not looking down but instead around at the busy square.

"Maybe that one?" Gabby saw a small hand point at a muscular man selling his wares. Judging by what she could see, he was poor enough to not have much food at home, but rich enough to have silver on hand - exactly what Gabby and Simon needed.

The two approached him, animals in hand.

"Hello," he said when they arrived at his table and stood in front of him, Gabby's tall frame towering over his shorter one. "How may I help you?"

"Would you like to buy this squirrel meat?" Simon began, following the order that they had established long ago. He held two of the fattest squirrels up above the small wooden table.

"I've never had squirrel meat, actually," the man said, looking at Simon curiously.

"Would you like to?" Gabby reached into the pocket of her breeches and pulled out a cut and fried piece of meat from when Lizzy, her youngest sister, had been unable to finish her meal. "I have some right here."

The man took the meat and put it in his mouth, and his eyes widened in awe as he chewed it up and swallowed it.

"This is delicious. What do you want for it?"

"Five bars of silver for these two?" Gabby offered, running one of her dark hands through her short, frizzy hair.

"Yes, ma'am." The man reached into his purse to pull out the money, and Simon and Gabby exchanged a glance of relief. _That was easy,_ she mouthed. Usually, the selling process was much more difficult.

"And may I interest you in a marriage as well? I have a son who looks about your age."

"No, thank you," Gabby snapped. Simon placed the squirrels on the table as Gabby took the silver, put it in her pocket, clenched her dagger tighter in her other hand, and stomped away as quickly as she could.

"What is it with Southerners and marriage?" she remarked to Simon, practically shaking in rage, as soon as they were out of earshot.

"You think he was Southern?" Simon stopped to put the remaining meat into his pockets.

"Of course. Only a Southerner would be that easy to sell to. And _only a Southerner_ would talk about _marriage_ after _barely a minute_ of knowing each other! _Jesus_."

"I might get married someday," Simon said dreamily. "Find me a rich girl who loves me, then take her silver and leave her forever."

"Smart plan. There are too many rich people in this world."

"And lords, too. Too many lords."

"Also true."

After a couple of minutes of walking, the siblings came to their destination: a tavern near the middle of the capital. Gabby handed the rabbit to Simon and took the silver out of her pocket, not once in the process releasing her grip on the dagger in her left hand.

"Ah, Gabriella!" the tavern-keeper, a short, portly man, exclaimed, leaving his place behind the bar. "My favorite street rat."

"John! My favorite rich scum! How goes the business?"

"Prospering, as you can see." He gestured with his hand at his belly fat, and Gabby laughed as she clapped him on the shoulder.

"In that case, your business is always booming. Do you have roast chicken?"

"Why, yes, I do! I saved my fattest one just for you. Two bars' worth, at least."

"Here's three." Gabby put two of the pieces back into her pocket and the other three into John's outstretched hand.

"I'm giving you my best spices just for that. Give me a second." John retreated into the back, and Gabby looked around at the room full of drunks, trying not to make eye contact with any.

"HEYYYYYYY, GIRL!"

_Shit._

A particularly short man, shorter than even John, stood up from one of the tables and began to reel his way across the room and over to her.

"You're really pretty," he slurred at her. "There's room in my bed for one more. Want to come along?" He wriggled his eyebrows in what he seemed to think was a seductive manner, but instead looked as if there was something on his face that he wanted to get off. Gabby held back laughter as she looked over at Simon.

"Can you stay here and get the chicken and the spices from John?" she asked him. "These drunks are going to get annoying as fuck soon enough, and I'd rather not be there when that happens. I'll be outside if you need me."

"Yeah, sure."

Gabby left the tavern, ignoring the drunkard's calls of "Come BAAAAAACK!" and, after a minute, "Whatever! You're ugly anyway!"

Once she was outside, looking out at the daylight streets, she breathed a sigh of relief, still on guard in case someone else from the bar tried to harass her.

"That's a nice knife."

Gabby jumped at the sound, but when she looked over, she saw that it was another young man. He stood up straight, and his movements looked in control, which most likely meant that he was sober. Her hand, which had reached for her dagger on instinct, slowly relaxed.

"Thank you. It's been passed on through my family for generations, according to my parents." That usually put people off from trying to buy it off of her, and she was skilled enough at guarding it that they did not try to steal it.

The young man nodded, thankfully not trying to continue the conversation and instead standing next to her silently.

The dagger truly _was_ beautiful, Gabby thought. Its hilt was metal that was expertly carved to be curved, and the blade was sharp, especially because she made sure every day that it did not become dull. The hilt was covered with rubies, some of which had fallen out over the years, resulting in random spots of light, shining grey. On the blade were carved little flames, and on the hilt, there was some sort of symbol that she did not recognize, mainly because it had worn out over the several centuries that it had existed. Her parents had given it to her, back when they were alive, and she would not give it up or sell it under any circumstance.

Another minute of awkward standing later, Simon walked out with the chicken in both hands.

"Gabby, can you carry the spices? This chicken is huge, and I don't have room in my arms."

"Yeah, sure. Let me go get them from inside real quick." Gabby went inside and took the spices, which included pepper, paprika, and ginger, from the table that they were on.

"See you soon, Gabriella," said John as the two walked out.

"See you soon."

The duo's next destination was the clothing store, because Lizzy's winter clothes were too small for her rapidly growing body. Simon held their youngest sister's measurements on a piece of paper in his pocket as they walked into the small tailor's shop a couple minutes' walk from the tavern. When they walked inside, a small blonde woman was at the front desk writing something down.

"How may I help you?" she asked, looking up as the two walked over to her.

Simon placed the piece of paper on the table as Gabby glared down at her. "I need winter clothes that fit these measurements."

"Yes, ma'am. Do you have the person whose measurements these are with you today?"

"No, she's at home."

"Oh, I was going to ask you to bring her in so I could see what colors and styles suited her the best."

Gabby grew from mild annoyance to a borderline fury as her glare grew in intensity. "I don't care about any of that. Just give me the simplest clothes that you have."

"Oh, but-"

" _I. Don't. Care._ "

The woman seemed to shrink in her seat as she took the paper. "V-very well. How many would you like?"

"Two shirts and two sets of pants would be sufficient. Would you be willing to take two silvers for that?"

"Yes." Judging by her face, she wanted to offer a higher price, but she had already seen Gabby's fury and didn't want to test her patience further.

"Good." Gabby pulled out her remaining money and put it on the table. "When will the clothing be ready?"

"Two weeks. You'll need to pay more if you want it sooner."

"No, two weeks will be good. I'll come back then, and I'll expect them finished."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Let's go." Gabby grabbed Simon by the arm and left the room.

"Women are so annoying," Gabby remarked as they walked in the direction of their home, not caring this time whether or not she was in earshot of the small blonde clerk. "Women and girls. The worst kinds of people in the world. Up there with royalty."

"Always talking about beauty and fashion," Simon agreed. "It's like they don't care about anything else."

"And marriage, too. I've found that women will never shut the hell up about marriage."

"Marriage conversations are the worst."

"Oh," said Gabby, letting go of his arm, "the royal parade is in two days. The Festival of Stars or something. We're going, right?"

"Wait, why do we care about that?"

"Someone might drop something valuable. We could use it."

"Why not just pick-pocket?"

"Si, you can do whatever you want, but I hate pick-pocketing. It's dishonest. I would never."

"Then I won't, either."

Gabby smiled down at her little brother. She almost always treated him like an intellectual and physical equal during their conversations, but sometimes, he would say something like this, and she would feel more like his role model than his friend. She ruffled his hair affectionately as they walked through the streets.

"Good boy."


	4. Valeria

"The bodice should be tighter, I think. To emphasize her curves."

"You think so? I think a looser bodice would make her look better."

"I think a tighter one looks better, but Valeria's opinion matters more in this situation. What do you think, Val?" Val's mother, Queen Magdalena, said this as she looked her daughter's dress up and down.

"I want it looser," said Val, who was covered in blue fabric that had been repeatedly adjusted and readjusted for the better half of the morning. "It's more comfortable."

"All right," said the royal seamstress, Jolene, stepping behind her and loosening the strings. "Tell me when."

The fabric of the dress loosened for a second or two, after which Val said, "Now."

"Perfect," said Jolene. "That's the only other major thing that we needed to decide. I'll have it ready by this evening, so if anything is wrong with it, we'll have a full day to fix it."

"Okay." Val left into the adjoining room and changed from the complicated blue dress into the plain purple one that she had been wearing when she came into the room to get fitted.

"Val, do you you have any lessons today?" her mother asked once they were walking through the castle's hallways.

"No, I did them all yesterday so that I would be free today. I need to plan out Wednesday's rally. Speaking of, Mom, did you cancel my piano lesson?"

"Yes, I did. Took me quite a bit of persuading, though. Sir Aaron is every bit as stubborn as those judges of ours."

"I still can't believe that they won't listen to _you_. I mean, you're the _queen_ , for heaven's' sake!"

"According to the law," said Magdalena, looking ahead, "the judges obey no one, not even the ruler. Funny thing is, they didn't seem to care about that law when my father was king." The queen had been speaking with an even voice, but during the last sentence, her tone turned to one of bitterness.

"Maybe when Carlos takes the throne, they'll listen to him," she said after a moment's pause.

"I don't need Carlos. I'll make them listen to me if it's the last thing I do."

Val's mother wrapped an arm around her shoulders encouragingly. "And I'll do anything that I can to support you."

"Thanks. I really, honestly appreciate it.” Val leaned into her mother and smiled up at her. “Are there any official meetings that Carl needs to go to today?"

"There was, with Olivannia, but King Patrick cancelled it this morning because your father couldn't attend. Maria's sick, and all of our nurses think she has that mysterious illness that's been spreading among the small-folk."

"What? But she obviously doesn't! She hasn't left the castle since she was born."

"Of course she doesn't. Our nurses are just looking for excuses. So is King Patrick, for that matter."

"King Patrick isn't even _looking_. He just doesn't like women. _God_ , I hate him."

Queen Magdalena laughed. "So do I. But as I always tell Carlos, you often have to hide your true feelings during these negotiations. It is good to be brave, Val, but there are times when you cannot be reckless."

"Yes, Mom."

They had arrived at the entrance to Val's room, and the two bade each other goodbye. Val went inside, already thinking about her plans, which she wrote down as soon as she sat down at her desk and pulled out a pen and paper. She looked at her notebook and wrote and planned for a large part of the rest of the day, and it wasn't until the morning of the parade that she put up posters with the full agenda, walking the streets dressed in a black cloak over her blue dress, Carlos by her side.

"I can't believe you're doing this now," he said, shaking his head as he helped put up brightly colored leaflets.

"I'll forget later, and there might not be enough time. We'll be busy."

"Yeah, but why are you wearing your dress?"

"Too busy to change it. Also, I want to wear it as long as possible. I mean, have you seen it? It's beautiful!" Val stopped walking to jump up and down with excitement, looking like Mili but not caring.

"Of course I've seen it. Just don't get it dirty, please. Mom and Dad would kill you."

"Especially Mom. She's been with me trying it on for such a long time."

"Very, very true. Is this all of them?" Carlos looked down at his hands, which were empty.

"Yep. Let's head back. The parade should be starting in just half an hour, according to the clock tower." Val nodded in its direction; it loomed tall over the city, slowly ticking.

Half an hour later, the two were in a huge and fancily decorated carriage, accompanied by Gabriel and Mili in the back and Magdalena and Sebastian Greyhawk (Maria, the youngest, was under the care of a nurse who had finally relented and agreed to take care of her) in the front. It was Val's first parade, and she reveled in the sound of cheers and claps that came from the day-lit streets.

"When can I start passing the silver out?" she whispered to Carlos, holding the bag in her hands.

"The coach will stop in a couple of minutes," Carlos whispered back, "where there are the most locals. You can pass it out then." True to his word, they soon stopped in the middle of the crowded square, and Val stood up and began to look around for poor-looking locals. When she found some, she began to wave them up and give each one two or three pieces of silver, maybe four if they looked especially in need of them. She recognized some small-folk from her meetings, and a few that she had seen on the streets, and she was trying to see if she saw Amelia, a close friend of hers, when she saw a tall, dark-skinned woman.

She looked about her age, maybe a year older. She was tall, taller than even Carlos by the looks of it, and she had curly hair that was just past shoulder length that looked as if it had been hastily cut with a knife, which, judging by her old, dirty clothes, it probably had been. The woman - no, girl, if she was Val's age - was slim but muscular, and her face was angry, though it seemed like casual anger, as if she always held that expression. After another moment of glancing, Val saw that she was beautiful, in a mysterious sort of way, and she felt her heart race a couple of steps faster.

 _Just wave her up_ , she thought to herself. _Easiest way to meet her_. Val gestured with her hand at the tall girl, who was standing next to a smaller boy who looked like her younger brother, and beckoned her to come closer. The girl continued to stand, face even angrier than it already had been, and clenched her fist tighter around a fancy-looking dagger. Val tried again, gesturing harder this time, but the girl glared at her as if she would spit in her face if they were close to each other, and Val shrank down, averting her gaze into the opposite direction to look for other locals, but for the whole time, she couldn't stop thinking about the mysterious girl who had refused her kindness.

"You look sad," Carlos said a couple of hours later, when it was already evening closing off a long day. They were in his room, accompanied by Gabriel (Mili had already gone to sleep under the orders of their parents), and he was braiding her hair as they talked about the events of the day.

"Yeah, Val. You're not really talking much. What's wrong?" Gabriel had hopped down from the bed to sit in front of his sister.

"Is it a boy?" Carlos asked, continuing to braid. "Or a girl? Give me a name, a time, and a place, and I'll fight whoever I need to. I'm ready. Got my fists, got my sword if I need it, got any weapon that's required."

"It's just one of the small-folk," Val sighed sadly.

"Boy or girl?"

"Girl. I tried to wave her up to give her silver, but she just glared at me. So now I probably won't see her again. She was really pretty."

"I'm sorry," said Carlos, tying a knot in the braid to lean forward and give his sister a hug from behind. "I'll fight her if you need me to."

Gab stepped forward and joined the group hug. "I will, too."

Val, sandwiched in between her brothers, laughed. "I don't think you'll need to. I mean, you all don't know her, probably. And it's not like you'll be able to find her."

"I will find her. And when I do, I'll fight her."

"All right, all right. Thanks, guys. That helped."

Carlos patted her shoulder, afraid to ruffle her hair as he usually did for fear of undoing his meticulous work on the braid, which he continued after another couple of seconds of holding the hug.

"Gab, how was your very first Festival of Stars parade?" Val asked him, staying as still as possible.

"It was really fun! One of the girls told me that my suit looked pretty."

"Ooh, Gabriel getting all the ladies!" Carlos teased. "Was she pretty?"

"She was about your age. But she was."

"Give her to me, then. My clothes were way better."

"No, they weren't."

"Yes, they were."

"Were not."

"Were too."

"Were not."

"Were too."

The pattern continued for a while before it faded away into other banter and discussions about their day outside of the parade until it was way, way past their usual bedtime, and they divided and went back to their rooms. Once she was back, Val began to take off her dress, undo the long braid, take off her bracelets, take off her ring-

_Wait._

The ring, a family heirloom that her mother had recently entrusted her with, wasn't on her finger, where it had been when she had left for the parade. And when she strained her memory now, she didn't remember it being on her hand when she had gone into the castle, hadn't been in Carlos's room or the kitchen or any of the castle hallways. Which meant that she had most probably dropped it during the parade, and it was lying in the streets.

_Shit._

Carlos or her mother would have told her to wait, would have told her to ask one of the guards to find it, or they might have just told her not to worry about it. But now was one of the times when Val didn't care what they would think, didn't care that it may have been stolen by now, only cared that it was missing and it was her fault and she had to go find it. Quickly, she put on one of her other blue dresses and a necklace, tying her hair into a ponytail with a ribbon as she left the room.

As she was going down the many stairs, it was night-time, so most of the guards were asleep, except for the night guards that she knew would be at the front gates. Because of this, she left through the secret back passage, crept through the back garden, and was soon out on the streets, nothing but a single torch to light her way and possibly use as a weapon if needed in her hand.

Val continued walking through the streets, nothing but the single light she held in her hand showing her the way through the darkness. She looked down at the ground and at the same time up around her, in case, by some sort of happenstance, one of her friends was there and willing to help her. And still she saw no glint that would mean that the small golden band had been found, only darkness and dirt that made her regret that she hadn't borrowed trousers or something from her brother instead of the dress that she was currently wearing.

She walked through the streets, many of which she recognized from parades and rallies, and still there was nothing. Soon, she was at what looked like the outskirts of the city, and her heart began to pound against her chest when she realized that she didn't know where she was.

 _Shit._ Val felt her vision begin to cloud as she panicked, not knowing what to do, regretting every decision that she had made in the past hour that had led to this moment.

 _Okay. Think. Think._ Her first order of business was to get back onto a street that she knew. Normally, she would follow the path that she had taken until she was back home, but Val realized as she looked behind her that she honestly had no idea what the way back even was.

 _Just go back. What could possibly happen?_ And so that was what Val did, torch continuing to burn in her hand. The ponytail that she had tied her hair into was constricting, so she undid it, continuing to look around and then down.

A couple of streets later, she fell into a monotone, head slowly moving around, mind barely even registering what she was here for as the exhaustion of late night began to set in. A right turn here, a left turn there, just dust and soot and dirt and a glint of light-

_A glint of light?_

Val knelt down, transferring the torch from her right hand to her left as she began to dig around, looking for the source of the mysterious flash that she had seen. Her hands stumbled against a knob of some sort that seemed to lead to a secret door, but they passed by it, reaching instead for something else, something small and round and circular, with a big thing on top of it. Val's right hand pulled it up and inspected it, and she realized through the fog of her tiredness that by some miracle, she had found the ring that she was looking for.

She had expected to feel excitement, maybe even happiness or relief. But instead, all she felt was worry. Yes, she had found it, but now what? How was she going to get home?

Lost in thought, Val didn't realize that her right hand was still moving, stroking the floor and finding the knob and pulling it up. Inside, she found upon closer inspection, was lots of some sort of meat, all raw and bleeding, and all quickly becoming covered in the soot on the ground as she struggled to force the door back down before someone noticed.

"What the hell are you doing with my stuff?"

Val jumped at the sudden noise behind her, and she whirled around quickly, practically sitting on the door as she held the torch forward. It immediately illuminated the face and figure of a tall, curly-haired girl, and Val realized that it was the one from the parade who had refused her silver. As she brought her gaze down, she saw that her hand was outstretched, the fancy-looking dagger at the end of it, its tip pointing directly at her throat. Val shuddered in spite of herself.

"Get away from my sister's stuff if you know what's good for you," said a small boy beside her who looked like the brother who had been with her.

"Y-yes, of course, I was just leaving," Val forced out. "I was looking for my ring. I accidentally stumbled upon this. I'll, erm, leave now."

"Yeah, you do that," the girl growled, bending her arm so that Val had room to stand up. She scooted to the side first, picking up her body so as not to ruin her dress, clenching the ring tightly in her hand. During the process, the door opened again, and the girl squatted down to look at what was inside using the light of Val's torch.

"Shit, she got them all dirty," she hissed to her brother, making sure to speak loudly so that Val could hear. "Now they're wasted. Jesus Christ, can't women do _anything_ right?"

"She's royalty, of course she can't," the brother remarked. "So damn used to living in the lap of luxury, everything coming her way, that she doesn't know what to do in the real world."

Val had wanted to leave peacefully and find her way home without starting any arguments, but at this statement, she bristled as she thought about all the hard work that she had put into her cause. "Shut up and stop trying to start a fight when there's no reason to. You can just wash them, and it'll be all right."

The girl had been looking through the meat, squatting down while Val was standing up. Now, she rose, towering over Val's small frame, and knocked her down with a push of her hand. She pulled out her dagger again and pointed it at her, face twisted into anger.

"Ignorant rich girl," she snapped. " _Typical_. Listen here, you shit-faced bitch. My brother Simon and I have spent weeks, _weeks_ , catching these animals. And this specific sort of dirt ruins the meat. You can't wash it out. And if you open the door the wrong way, _which you did,_ it opens all of the soot onto it. I don't even know how you found our secret stash, but I don't care. You've wasted all of our hard work, and you need to pay."

All of Val's instincts screamed to let it slide, maybe give them something of hers, or a promise of silver. But this girl was so infuriating, and it didn't even matter that she was a peasant, only that she acted as if she was a queen and then had the audacity to be beautiful, and Val opened her mouth to protest instantly.

"Well, then why-"

"Will you _shut up_ , for fuck's sake?" The hand that held the dagger shot forward, dangerously close to her neck, as the girl leaned in. During daytime, Val would be terrified, and she was now, but it was diluted, surreal, and she found that what she focused on was not the deadly weapon but the curves of the mysterious girl's face.

It was more oval-shaped than round, with a long nose in the middle that was straight until it ended in a slightly bigger button above her thick lips that were pulled back into a scowl. Just above the nose were two brown, almost black eyes, which were narrowed as she glared down. When Val inspected her more closely, she couldn't help but imagine her as royalty, maybe on their wedding in a white dress...

No, she couldn't imagine this girl in a dress, or even in white, for that matter. It seemed as if she would be best in a black suit of some sort, like what Carlos owned, with a red undershirt, short hair still down, but maybe cut better, and just a bit longer. The dagger was still in her hand in this image; under no circumstance could she imagine her parting with it.

She was whispering now, Val could barely comprehend, saying something to her brother that she could not hear, thin blade of the dagger still pointing at her throat, so close that if she wanted to, she could kill her right here and right now.

"Stand up," she said after a couple of minutes, moving her arm and allowing her to rise up onto shaky legs, nearly dropping the torch onto the ground in the process.

"Gabby, should I take her torch?" the brother, Simon, asked. "I feel like she's going to drop it."

"Yeah, that's a good idea." The girl - Gabby, apparently - watched as Simon took the torch from Val's left hand.

Gabby stepped forward, putting the dagger away in the process, and grabbed her by the shoulders, towering over her by at least a head, as she looked Val up and down.

"She has a necklace," she said eventually. "Looks expensive. Would be good compensation."

"It's technically illegal to steal from a royal," Simon said.

"Which is why we'll ask politely. Your Royal Highness, would you mind terribly if we took this lovely golden necklace of yours?" Gabby spoke in a tone of sarcastic politeness as her right hand let go of her shoulder and grabbed onto its chain.

"No, of course I don't mind," Val said, voice laced with bitterness.

"Thank you. You're too kind." Gabby sliced the chain with her dagger and pocketed the thing. As soon as she did, Simon handed Val the torch, which the latter took with a still-shaking hand.

"Don't touch my shit again," she threatened as she took her brother by the hand and began to leave, "or I'll ask for more next time. You got that, Your Royal Highness?"

"Yes, ma'am." Val, now with a ring and without a necklace, went back onto the streets to try and find her way. As she walked, more focused on finding the path back now that it was her only goal, she thought about the girl whose name she now knew.

Their paths had crossed again against all odds, and if she were talking to Carlos, he would probably reassure her by saying that it meant that they were meant to be together. But that wasn't logical, of course; Gabby hated her for reasons that Val still didn't understand. She probably always would, Val continued to think, no matter what she did. And the most likely conclusion was that this meeting would be their last.

She was still thinking when, by some sort of miracle, she managed to discreetly sneak into her room and finally go to sleep.


	5. Gabriella

The morning after the incident, Gabby took Simon, her sister Lizzy, and the necklace to the goldsmith's. She had originally wanted to leave Lizzy back home, as she usually did, but Simon had convinced her that it was better for her to go to the city and learn as much as she could about it while she was still young and impressionable. Gabby had always seen her brother as a smart person, but in a rare instance, she was regretting following his advice as she suffered through Lizzy's non-stop questions.

"Where are we going?" she asked, tugging on the fabric of the bottom of Gabby's shirt. "What are we doing?"

"She's only five," Simon said, coming to the defense of his younger sister when Gabby looked close to snapping. "You were like that when you were her age."

"I don't think so," said Gabby. But even though she wanted to scream at Lizzy to shut up and go home, she held her hand, looked down at her with fondness, and answered the questions that she had to the best of her ability.

"We're going to a friend of mine who's a goldsmith," she said. "He's going to melt this necklace that we have and give us silver for the gold."

"Is he a nice friend?"

"Yes, he is." Gabby laughed inwardly as she wondered which of her many street friends prompted Lizzy to wonder about this. "Oh, look. We're here."

They had arrived at a fairly small building, on top of which the word "Goldsmith" was written on a huge sign. It was run-down due to not having very many customers and as a result not having much money to fix it up or buy a bigger building, but Gabby knew the owner as a friend, and no matter how little silver he had, he would never refuse her a fair price.

When she walked in, he was at the desk, helping a young-looking woman with something, and he did not look up when she came in.

"Leo! How are you doing?" she called good-naturedly, thinking that maybe he hadn't heard her.

"Oh, hello, Gabby. I'll be with you in a second. Is this a business matter?"

"Of course it is. I have gold that I need you to melt and buy."

"More gold is always good. We don't have nearly enough."

"You're welcome."

"Expect thanks when I actually get it. Now give me a second."

"Oh, hush." Gabby allowed her two siblings to sit down in the two chairs that were provided while she herself stood, leaning against the wall and fiddling with the chain of the necklace. After a minute, the woman retreated into the back, and Leo called her and her siblings forward.

"So, where's the gold that you wanted to give me?" he asked her. Gabby took it out, placed it on the table, and watched him inspect it.

"Looks royal," he said. "Where'd you get it?"

"I found it on the streets somewhere. One of the royal brats must have dropped it during the parade."

"If you say so."

Gabby stood in front of the desk as Leo picked out jewels from the chain and the golden trinket at the end, sliding them towards her when he was done.

"You would have good luck selling these elsewhere," he said. "This is a goldsmith's, not a jeweler's, so I can't buy them. They're very valuable, though. Anna, bring me my balance and weights, will you?" This last sentence he said as he turned around and looked into the back room.

"Yes, sir!" The young woman from before came in holding a simple tin balance and a bag of weights, which she placed on the table.

After a couple of minutes of fiddling and calculations done on paper, the goldsmith said, "This'll be three bars, but you'll have good luck selling these jewels, so that'll help you make more. Anna, take this to the back and melt it."

As Anna took the stripped necklace to the back, Gabby wrinkled her nose slightly. "Can you do it? I don't trust her."

"Anna is very skilled at this," said Leo, anger lacing his voice. "If you have a problem with that, you are completely free to take your business elsewhere. I hear there's a good goldsmith's on the other side of the capital."

"If you say so." Gabby bit back her own frustration as she waited for her payment. As soon as she got it, she put the bars into one pocket, the jewels into the other, and left the building in search of a jeweler's. She found one soon enough, about a five-minute walk from Leo's, and quickly made a deal for four bars of silver for all of the tiny jewels (getting them all out of her pocket was a pain, and she wondered how much dedication it must have taken to install them into the necklace). As she walked home, all of her duties done, she thought about how she and Simon had spent weeks of hard work and effort to catch all of those animals, and how if she had been able to sell them, she would have most likely gotten way more than a measly seven bars.

_All thrown away, just because of one obnoxious princess._ Gabby remembered the event as if it had been a minute ago instead of the night before. She had felt a swirling mixture of anger that she would have even labeled as hatred, mixed with intense exhaustion. All she had wanted to do was go home and sleep after a long, intense day of negotiations. She hadn't wanted to fight an annoying girl with a torch and a completely impractical dress.

But the girl - Valeria, according to gossip and small talk that she overheard every day in the marketplace - had entered her life and just as quickly exited it, but then re-entered it in a quick flash. And Gabby wanted her gone as soon as possible. Gone, with her fake sense of caring for the poor, with how she was giving out measly bags of silver while sitting on thrones of gold. Gone, with her arrogance and how she seemed to think that she knew the streets better than the person who actually lived on them. Gone, with the fact that no matter how obnoxious and annoying and frustrating she was, she was brave in her own way, unlike most of the women that she had met and unleashed her wrath upon, and that made a part of her deep inside show the inklings of admiration. Gone back into that castle of hers that loomed in the center of the city, out of sight and out of mind.

_As far away from me as possible. All thoughts of her down in hell, just like my mother and my past._

Gabriella had been nothing more than a little girl, and Simon a toddler, and Lizzy a small baby, when they had sat huddled inside the pile of sticks that they called a home, watching helplessly as their mother, accompanied by a man whose face Gabby did not remember, dragged the body of their father.

"Killed by petty thieves," they had explained, and Gabby had known the meaning of the word thief; her parents had used it time and time again when warning her against them. She hadn't known what the word petty meant, but she assumed that it meant despicable and cruel, because what other kind of person would rob her of her father, rob her of his hugs and his smile and the way he held the dagger of his and told her that she would hold it too, even use it, when she was older, just like he held it and used it every day?

They had been alone, all alone, except for their mother holding the three young children in her arms, and the loud sobs of Simon and even Lizzy, and their mother running her hand through Gabby's hair and collecting her tears in her chest and whispering that everything was going to be okay.

All of that was thrown away into the trash can one fateful morning when Gabby woke up to find her mother gone. She had searched all throughout the house, she remembered, but of all the food and the little bits of money that they had been given, all that she could find was the dagger, and a piece of paper on top of it that said her name in her mother's beautiful, curved writing.

She hadn't been killed or taken against her own wishes, Gabby found out after asking around. People had seen her walking deep into the city, bag of stuff in hand, seeking charity. She had never found it, though; her dead, cut-up body that was spotted in the murky river had been the talk of the town for days, no matter how much Gabby tried to cover her ears and run away.

Gabby and her siblings hadn't been able to find charity either, even though she had led them door to door and asked. She went to women first; her parents had told her that they tended to be the kindest. But for every house that she went to, all she left with was a door slammed in her face at the very least. Sometimes, it was more: a ball of spit landing on her face or on her clothes or in her hair, a very rude gesture that her parents had told her never to make, a loud and angry tirade, a whack on the head with a rolling pin.

It had only been men who had provided her with kindness, who had invited her into their homes despite their wives' protests, who had drank tea and eaten sandwiches and given Gabby and Simon a cup of hot cocoa, who had given Lizzy milk and Simon new clothes and Gabby a basket of food, who had been the reason why the trio hadn't died of starvation or exposure before Gabby became able to provide for them by herself.

Men had given Gabby kindness and survival; all that women had given her was cruelty and willful blindness and, later in life, annoyingness and grumbles and talks about how she needed to get a husband before she grew old and ugly. She didn't _need_ a husband, she told them time and time again, and she sure as hell didn't need women.

Even if they were frustratingly annoying princesses with a superiority complex.

_Especially_ if they were frustratingly annoying princesses with a superiority complex.

Sighing, Gabby shook her head to snap herself out of her stupor, clenched her siblings' hands tighter, and moved in the direction of the logs stacked into a pyramid that were the only thing that she could call home.


	6. Valeria

Two in the afternoon the day after the incident found Val with the servant children, sitting in class and listening to the castle tutor give them the lesson that they had learned every year around this exact time. It was a warm summer day, and she wanted to be outside walking the streets and playing with her siblings, maybe practicing her rally speech, but she was taking notes in her history notebook with her pencil, trying to focus on the board and not stare longingly out of the window.

"Nicolas Greyhawk the Second," the history tutor droned, "was the king of the fifth generation of Greyhawks, and the king during the Great Castle Library Fire. Can anyone tell me what that was?"

Val had little doubt that every single student in the classroom, including herself, would have been able to answer the tutor's question. But they were all bored and eager to leave, and from her seat near the back of the class, she could see that her friends were trying their hardest not to fall asleep.

"No one? Okay, I'll tell you. According to servants in the quarters, Nicolas was going to the library with a torch in hand on the night of an unknown date in April. While he was there, the library caught fire, and Nicolas tried to save as much as he could, but nearly all of the Greyhawks' records were destroyed, and the king himself died in the resulting fire. Even now, centuries later, the process of restoration continues, but it has, sadly, been largely unsuccessful."

A hand shot up into the air, and Val could see that it belonged to the cook's son, Michael Emmett.

"Some people say that King Nicolas set the fire on purpose in order to try to hide something," he said when the tutor called on him. "Is that true?"

"Whoever said that is a treasonous liar trying to slander the Greyhawk lineage and name," the tutor replied, looking somewhat annoyed - and Val noticed with amusement, just as bored as the students were. "King Nicolas has been labeled in the few surviving historical records as one of the most honest kings to ever live. And he would have known that there was a large chance that he would die in this fire. He wouldn't do that, just agree to kill himself, to his wife and young children. The chance of King Nicolas even thinking about it is close to zero. Now, I would say that it _is_ zero, because Nicolas would never do such a thing, but an unbiased historian must always keep other possibilities in mind until there is definite proof against them. A good historian must also..."

This was another thing that they had learned repeatedly; it was even on a poster on the wall that was labelled "The Ten History Commandments." Val's friends all ranted to her about how they wouldn't _need_ to be unbiased historians, so they could just do the work and leave, not having retained any information. When she was a little girl, Val had told her parents and Carl about how she could do the same thing, but they, especially her mother, had told her that as a royal, history would be a major factor of her life, so she would need to learn it and learn it well.

And so Val suffered through repeated lectures about the same material, and she took careful notes and studied them every night, no matter how much she wanted to never touch history again.

"The sixth commandment of history," the tutor continued, "is to recognize that although you yourself are unbiased, or at least should be, it doesn't mean that everyone else around you is as well. Always recognize the inherent biases present in primary sources and use several when possible in order to craft as detailed of an account as possible. Never forget while doing your research and keeping your records that although everyone is a historian, not everyone is a good one."


	7. Gabriella

"Lizzy, don't touch the food," Gabby warned her younger sister as she placed the pork that she was roasting over the small fire onto the paper plates that they had bought. "You haven't washed your hands under the stream, and they're dirty. I don't want you to get sick."

Lizzy nodded meekly and ran around the forest to the small creek where Gabby required her younger siblings and herself to wash up whenever they ate their meals. It was, in fact, a large part of the reason why the trio lived in that particular spot; the creek, which was just a field away, was both a source of clean drinking water and an easy way to wash their bodies and their foods.

"Simon, you cooked the potatoes earlier this evening, right?" Gabby asked as she saw her brother approach the fire.

"Yeah. Should I get them out?"

"In a couple of minutes. Put some of our spices on them if you want; we made a really good deal today, and I want to celebrate."

"I still can't believe that you managed to make it, though. That seller was stubborn as _shit_."

"Eh, I've dealt with worse. Did I ever tell you about the fat Westerner from before you started coming along with me?"

"No, I don't think so."

"Oh my God, now _that_ was a miracle. So, he was selling fish..."

Gabby continued to talk, occasionally turning over the pork chops, taking them off of the fire, and adding spices. Meanwhile, Simon prepared the potatoes, cut them into pieces with Gabby's dagger, and prepared three heaping plates.

Gabby's story ended shortly before Lizzy came running across the field, a bundle of something in one wet hand.

"Liz, what are those? Are your hands clean?" Gabby began to lay the food around the fire, having finished the preparation.

"They're flowers! I wanted to ask you if you could braid them into my hair."

 _What the fuck?_ Gabby wondered where in the world she had gotten the idea; she herself had never alluded to anything close to the idea of being beautiful. Then she remembered all of the times that she had brought her little sister into the city, and she had seen women walking the streets with beautiful hairstyles, many of which incorporated flowers. Flowers had become very stylish among the peasants ever since the queen had been seen at a festival wearing a whole bunch of them in her hair. It was absolutely _disgusting_ in Gabby's own opinion, but Lizzy could do whatever she wanted, she guessed.

"I'm no good at braids, but I'll try after dinner."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Lizzy ran up and wrapped her arms around her, and Gabby returned the hug and patted her back.

"Will you let me put them into _your_ hair?"

 _Ugh._ Gabby should have expected this; her little sister had wanted to be like her in every way for the last couple of weeks, and that probably also included making Gabby do the same things that she did.

"All right. Sure." Gabby decided to humor her little sister, even though her insides were cringing at the thought. "After dinner, though. All after dinner."

Dinner passed in a flurry of conversation, after which Simon found a place to bury the paper plates, and Gabby tied Lizzy's long hair into a quick braid with half of the flowers that she had brought in randomly scattered throughout it. Then, Gabby sat on the ground while Lizzy stood, doing something long and complicated.

"Where'd you learn that?" Gabby asked, not knowing what exactly was happening with her hair.

"While you were making the deal today, one of the ladies outside taught me. She said that it was good for short hair like yours, because you don't need much hair to do it."

"I'm sure it looks very good," said Gabby, though she was intending to let it loose as soon as it got dark and she could go to bed, which, judging by the setting sun, was going to be soon.

It wasn't until it was fully night-time, stars scattered in the black sky, full moon shining overhead, that Lizzy was finally done, and the two made their way back to the tent that they called their house, Gabby carrying her already asleep sister and ready to go to bed herself. However, when she came to the pile of logs, she saw something that she didn't expect.

Simon was standing at the entrance, looking confused and talking to a man holding a torch. When Gabby came closer, her brother looked over at her apologetically, and she saw that the man was one of her street friends, James, and he was holding a squirming young woman by the arm.

"Oh, hello, Gabby," James said, turning to her. "I've got your friend here." He yanked the girl around and pushed her towards her, and Gabby could see that it was Valeria.

"She's not my friend!" she yelled, but James was already leaving.

" _Christ!_ " she snapped loudly. Then, she turned to the princess, looking down to look her in the eye.

"What are you doing here?"

"I didn't want you," she said angrily. "Your friend over there grabbed me by the arm while I was walking and dragged me here. I'm going to go now."

"Listen, if you go out there all alone, you're going to get raped _at best._ Why the fuck are you here?"

"I'm not alone this time. I'm with my older brother Carlos. Now _let me go!_ " Valeria moved to leave, but Gabby grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back.

"I don't know him, I don't trust him, I-"

" _He has combat experience!_ He can help me! I don't need you! Why are you suddenly caring when you tried to _murder_ me the other night?"

"That was a misunderstanding, and it was your fault, now tell me _what the fuck are you doing out in the streets at night?_ " Gabby had tried to keep her tone even for the sake of her sleeping sister, but she lost her patience now, and she felt Lizzy stirring awake in her arms.

Valeria looked as if she was about to protest again, but she thankfully thought better of it as she said, "Fine. _Fine._ My younger siblings, Gabriel and Mil-Emilia, are lost somewhere. Carlos and I are worried. We're looking for them."

"Siblings? Not a stupid ring this time?"

"That ring was a family heirloom."

"Then maybe you should have guarded it better. Anyway, I know siblings. I have two right here. You woke up one of them. I can help you find yours for a price."

"Is there always a price with you?"

"Of course you wouldn't understand money if you always have it on hand when you need it. Is three bars of silver good? And don't try to tell me that you don't need my help, because _you do._ "

Valeria shuddered slightly, but then she nodded. "Yeah. Three bars of silver is good."

"All right, let's go. Let me get my dagger real quick." As Gabby turned away to go inside her house, she heard Val clear her throat.

"What?" she asked, turning around.

"Your hair looks really nice with all those flowers," Valeria said, smiling.

"I did her hair!" Lizzy exclaimed excitedly, having already hopped down from Gabby's arms. "And she did mine. Lookit."

Gabby heard Valeria examine the braid and make sounds of approval. "You should come by my castle sometime. I feel like you and I would get along."

Gabby's eye twitched slightly as she left the tent, dagger in hand, and tucked it into her belt.

"Where could they be?" she asked Val as they were walking out, Simon and Lizzy left behind at home. "You know them best. Where in the city are they most likely to be found?"

Valeria thought for a second before speaking. "Mili really loves fighting and stuff. You know, combat-type things. Gabriel not so much, but he likes Mili, so he'll follow her anywhere."

 _I'd get along with her younger siblings if they weren't related to their human disaster of an older sister._ "Where did you last see them?"

"We were walking through the streets, and I needed to go home early to revise my speech. Then, my brother Carlos started to take care of them. He lost them while they were walking through the marketplace."

"Which marketplace?" Gabby asked, expecting an awkward glance and a long, detailed description. To her surprise, Valeria said, "The one near Sirius Street, I forgot what it was called. You know, if you go straight, then turn left onto Orion, you should be there."

"I know that one. Let me think." As the two walked through the streets, Gabby ran through her mind all the gossip that she had overheard, trying to remember if there was anything interesting that the two young warriors would want to witness.

"Well," she said, thinking about a conversation that she had had with John earlier in the morning, "today is the free-for-all death match, which is basically something that happens each month where the tavern drunks get together and fight with wooden swords."

"Why is it called the death match if it's just wooden swords?"

"Because they're idiotic drunks, and it makes it more dramatic and makes more people want to come. Anyway, do you think that Emilia and Gabriel would want to see that?"

"Yeah, I think so," said Valeria. "Before we go check, I need to find my brother Carlos and tell him that I was kidnapped and ransomed."

"Stop complaining, I might be saving your siblings' lives. Where is he?"

"He was checking the marketplace when we decided to split up."

"Which one?"

"Take a wild fucking guess," Valeria snapped, looking up at the taller girl with bitterness. Gabby was surprised for a second before she recovered.

"No need to be rude."

"Tell that to yourself. Let's just go already."

Gabby and Valeria walked side by side down the uncharacteristically empty streets, both occasionally yawning into their hands. When they arrived at the marketplace, they found Carlos waiting by the statue of Gabriel Greyhawk I in the center, sword in hand. Instantly, Valeria ran towards him, Gabby following after a moment's hesitation, and the siblings embraced.

"Where the hell were you?" Carlos asked.

"I was walking down the east sector when a guy picked me up and carried me over to this lovely lady, and now she's forcing me to let her help us for a price."

Carlos looked over at Gabby. "What price?"

"Three bars. I think that will be enough for two siblings?"

"Two bars," said Carlos. "I see you around sometimes. You're fucking _loaded._ "

" _No!_ " Gabby exclaimed, waving her dagger without realizing it. "Do you have _any idea_ the pains I go through to get that money? And how quickly it gets wasted just buying simple needs?"

"Do you realize that we can get by without you?" Carlos raised an eyebrow, something that was barely visible by the light of the torch that he was holding, and leaned on his sword.

He was different from his sister, Gabby realized as she watched him. While Valeria had been a disaster when it came to negotiations, Carlos was clearly skilled in this kind of thing, and Gabby could feel his dark brown eyes reading her and analyzing the situation.

_I won't have this._

"Yes, you can. But I'll save a lot of time and injuries. And your sister already agreed to the price of three."

"I'm choosing to ignore that. Either you get two, or you get a request to kindly fuck off and a whack over the head with this sword."

"I'd like to see you try, Your Royal Highness." Gabby held up her dagger, tempted to point it at his face.

After that, there was silence, neither of them drawing their weapons, instead choosing to glare at each other. Carlos was only an inch or two shorter than her, but that was hardly noticeable as the tension quickly rose.

Finally, Carlos looked to the side. "Fine. Three."

Gabby forced a grin. "Good. Let's go. I was just telling your sister about a drunken death match happening right now. Maybe your siblings are there. Let me take you."

"A drunken death match?" Carlos smiled awkwardly, almost as if he wanted to laugh but was afraid to.

"My tavern friend brings drunkards outside, gives them wooden swords, and watches them hit each other over the head with them. It's quite entertaining, actually. I've been to a few."

"It's nearby," Valeria added, "so maybe Gab and Mili overheard about it and wanted to go."

"Oh, is it the tavern with the really good roast chicken?" Carlos asked. "Val hosts her meetings at that tavern. I think I've heard something about a death match. Never been, though."

"Interesting." It seemed as if Carlos was trying to be diplomatic, perhaps trying to make small talk to ease their intense negotiations, but she ignored his attempts, instead wondering what meetings Valeria could possibly be hosting. _Probably beauty meetings or something. Disgusting._

"Well, we're here," she said as they walked into the small, empty tavern.

"Do we go through the back?" Valeria asked.

"I would assume so." Gabby led the two to the back door. As soon as she opened it, she was met with an explosion of sound.

It was rather anticlimactic to the other two, she could tell as she looked at their faces. Just as she had a couple of years ago, they must have been expecting something like a knights' tourney or a dramatic sword duel; instead, there was a group of fat drunks reeling and falling on top of each other while other fat drunks stood and cheered. It was entertaining, she had said to the royal siblings, and she hadn't been lying; it _was_ entertaining, if you stopped looking at it as a drama and started looking at it as a comedy. Being drunk while watching also helped.

"Do you see your siblings anywhere?" she asked. "I don't know what they look like."

Valeria and Carlos, holding hands for comfort, had already walked into the crowd while Gabby stood by and watched, and they soon returned with a small girl whose hair was in two messy braids and a slightly taller boy who looked very distressed.

"Don't _ever_ run off like that again," Carlos was rebuking the children as Valeria stood on their other side.

"But Carl, it was a _death match!_ " the girl said in an attempt at self defense.

"I don't care, Mili. If you wanted to see it, you should have seen it with me or Val. Don't wander the streets unsupervised."

"I'm sorry," said the boy. "I shouldn't have."

"Damn right you shouldn't have." Carlos leaned over and ruffled his hair affectionately. "I'm glad you weren't kidnapped or anything."

As they walked back to the castle, the two younger children walked over to Gabby.

"Who are you?" the girl, Emilia asked.

"I'm Gabriella. I was helping Carlos and Valeria find you."

"That's cool. I like your dagger. Is it yours?" Emilia pointed at the thing, which was in her right hand, fist clenched tightly around it.

"Of course it's mine. Why the hell wouldn't it be?"

"I don't know. I once read a book where the main character had her entire sword stolen. Maybe you stole it from someone."

"Even if I stole it," said Gabby, anger creeping into her voice, "it would still be mine. And anyway, it was passed on through my family. It's _mine_."

If Emilia was intimidated, she didn't show it; she continued to hop in place excitedly. "It's really cool. What do you do with it?"

"Hunt, mainly. Sometimes threaten people."

"Have you ever killed anyone?" This was a small voice from Gabby's other side, and a quick glance revealed that it was the other boy, Gabriel.

"No, I haven't."

" _Would_ you kill anyone?"

"Only in self-defense. I don't kill people just for fun."

"Can I see your dagger?" Gabriel stood on tiptoes to look over at it.

"Yes, but don't touch it."

"Ooh, I wanna see too!" Emilia exclaimed, hopping over to the other side. Reluctantly, Gabby showed it to both of the siblings, allowing them to inspect the gems and the engravings.

"Your name is Gabriella, right?" the small boy asked after he was done looking at it.

"Yeah. But my friends call me Gabby."

"Our names are almost the same!" he said with an intense enthusiasm. "I'm Gabriel, you're Gabriella! And everyone calls me Gab, and that's close to Gabby."

As Gabby looked over at the small boy's face, she could see that it was broken into a huge grin, and when he hopped in place, he looked like his sister.

She smiled in spite of herself. "I guess so. Maybe when you grow up, you'll fight just like me."

"Yeah. Carlos says I'm going to have a sword just like him someday."

"I already have a sword!" Emilia exclaimed. "It's called Eaglethorn, and it's made out of wood. Someday I'm going to have a real one."

"Maybe you will." Although Gabby had felt annoyance at first, something that she would call affection if it were anyone but this royal bunch began to creep in.

"Will you teach me how to use it?" Emilia asked.

"Stop by my house sometime, and maybe I will."

During the conversation, Valeria and Carlos had been hanging back and chatting. It was only when they arrived at the castle that the siblings gave Gabby a hug, and Carlos said an awkward goodbye. Valeria said nothing, but as she went into the castle, Gabby watched her take a long look at the dagger in her hand.


	8. Valeria

Val, Carlos, Mili, and Gabriel had tried to sneak into the castle quietly, avoiding the front door and going through the secret back way that had no guards because most people didn't even know that it existed. It seemed as if they were going to be successful as Carlos extinguished their torch as they were walking up the stairway to their bedrooms, but just as they were going to split up in the hallway that they shared, they were stopped by two people, both holding torches and looking absolutely furious.

"Valeria! Carlos! Emilia! Gabriel!" their mother shrieked, not caring about the servants, who were all asleep. "What is the meaning of this?"

If it had been just their father, then the four would have most likely been able to leave with the excuse that they were tired and wanted to go to bed. King Sebastian, however, was accompanied by Queen Magdalena, who would see right through their lies.

"Where _were_ you?" their father asked as they stopped.

Mili spoke first. "Gab and I wanted to see a death match behind a pub and we got lost while Carlos was walking us so we were out there watching the death match but it wasn't a death match it was just drunks hitting each other with swords and-"

"Emilia, that's enough," Queen Magdalena said. "Why did you and Gabriel get lost?"

"It wasn't my fault," Carlos said. "I was holding them by the hand, but then they slipped away while we were walking."

"And you didn't notice?" The queen said this in a cold voice, face not betraying the anger that she must have been feeling.

"I was too busy talking," Carlos said, looking down at his feet in shame.

"Don't lose your siblings again. Anyway, even if you did lose them, why did you go after them yourselves? We have guards for a reason. You could have been killed, or worse."

The real answer to this, Val thought, was that she and Carlos didn't want their parents angry at them, that they could quickly find their siblings before a real crisis happened. That wasn't exactly the best thing to say in the situation at hand, and her parents were both looking at her expectantly for a response, so she said, "Because we didn't know if Gab and Mili would follow the guards. We knew that they would follow us. We're their brother and sister."

"Of _course_ we would follow the guards!" Mili exclaimed. Val took a deep breath to calm herself down, and out of the corner of her eye, she could see Gab punch her in the side and Carlos look at her frustratedly.

"Gabriel, don't hit your sister. Anyway, either you're more stupid than I thought, Valeria, or you're lying to me."

"I'm _not stupid!_ " Val couldn't help but scream, the notion of civility that she had in her mind now thrown out of the window.

"Well, then, you're lying," said Sebastian calmly, "because of course your brother and sister would follow the guards. They trust them."

"I'm not lying either," Val snapped. "Circumstances were different. Who knows?"

"I would want to listen to what you have to say if you changed that tone of yours," said the queen. "Calm yourself down."

"Well, you just called me a stupid liar, so-"

"I had reason to. Calm. Yourself. Down."

"You know that if it weren't for us, then Gab and Mili would still be gone?"

"I know that perfectly well. I also know that they would be back sooner, and we wouldn't be having this conversation, if you had just called the guards for help, which you didn't."

"But, Mom-"

"Don't you 'but mom' me. Go to bed, all of you. And no walking the streets without supervision for two weeks. That's your punishment."

"That's a _stupid_ punishment!" Mili said, pouting and stomping her foot.

"Oh, do you want a better one? _Three_ weeks. Now _go to bed_ before I make it a month."

Val and Carlos walked in one direction, Gabriel and Mili in the other, and their parents, satisfied, walked down the stairs. They could hear a loud "OW!" coming from the other direction that sounded as if it belonged to Mili.

As soon as the two were out of earshot of the others, Val let out a groan of frustration and slumped against her door.

"Now how are we going to give Gabby her payment? And how am I going to have meetings for my cause?"

"I think we can make an argument for John the tavern-keeper being adult supervision," said Carlos. "Mom and Dad know him. And we can tell him to tell Gabby to come to the tavern."

"Oh, yeah. That's smart."

"Unlike you. What did you have to talk back to Mom for?"

"She-"

"What part of 'talk less and smile more' did you not understand? Remember, sometimes you're in the right, but you have to pretend that you're in the wrong. Though I _do_ think that Mom was in the right here. We shouldn't have left the house at night."

Reluctantly, Val had to agree with her brother, though she wouldn't admit it to save her life. "Good night, Carlos."

"Good night, Vally."

Val was tired, so she wanted to go to sleep instantly, but before she did, she drew a rough sketch of Gabriella's dagger on parchment paper in ink.

 

In the early hours of the morning, when only a couple of the servants were awake, Val took the paper with the sketch, changed into a simple dress, and went to the old, burned castle library. It was open to the residents of the castle, the sign at the door read, but only if they were careful, wore gloves, and left everything exactly as they had found it. She had been inside a couple of times, when doing research for her classes, but she had never failed to be saddened when she saw the paintings of how the library had once been and compared them to the complete wreck that it was now due to the Great Library Fire of Nicolas's rule.

The paintings showed the shelves as seemingly reaching to the sky and filled to the brim with books of different colors, old and new. The walls had been decorated with tapestries of the Greyhawks' accomplishments through history, as well as paintings, beautiful blue wallpaper, and small statuettes that added a sense of minimalism to the room that was overflowing with history.

Now, however, the paintings and the tapestries were torn on the walls, the statuettes' shards were already long since swept away, and the books and the shelves were largely burned. There had been restoration, but it hadn't done much, and there was only a small amount of books on the rebuilt shelves. Val wouldn't find what she was looking for here, most likely, but she could at least try.

She walked among the shelves, picking up any book that she could find, leafing through it, and turning up unsuccessful. This process lasted for another couple of hours, lasted even as servants came and brought her breakfast and left, lasted even as Gabriel and Mili begged her to play with them and she had to explain to them that she was busy, lasted even as Carlos came to ask her what she was doing and received no answer. The few books that had been restored told only of the Greyhawks; this was a different family that had somehow been lost to history. It was a question that she couldn't answer, even as she looked everywhere throughout the enormous room for anything that would be able to help her.

Finally, she came to the far end, where she squatted down to look at the very bottom shelf. As she did so, she saw a flash of something under it, and she got down onto her stomach, reached a slender arm down under the wood, and pulled out a small red book with a cover that had already faded away. The pages were all burned, Val saw, except for a few at the very end, which looked as if someone had tried to scratch out the words.

 _Burn this_ was scratched into the front cover, and Val thought about how someone had already completed that request; only a few pages at the end were intact. _Why, though? Why would someone want to burn everything in this book except for these?_

Val began to think, remember what she had learned in history class. _Everyone is a historian, but not everyone is a good one._ Someone had tried to destroy evidence, obviously, to create a biased view of history. But what?

Her mind drifted from history to science, and how they had learned about a valuable fireproof material called ignimium. Perhaps someone had tried to burn these, but these pages were made of ignimium, so the person had been unable to. _That_ meant that whoever had made this book had known that someone would try to destroy it, which meant that the papers had important information on them.

 _Ignimium ink,_ she remembered a passage from her chemistry textbook, _is not visible on ignimium paper unless the paper is put under high heat. Usually, the page is set on fire, but the fire does not consume the paper due to its fireproof properties._

 _Maybe this paper was an ignimium paper that was written on using ignimium ink?_ It was a long shot, but it was worth a try.

Val picked the book up off of the floor, stood up, and picked one of the candles up off of a small table. She separated the first page from the others, moved it to the flame, and watched it heat up but not be set on fire. It took a couple of minutes of watching and waiting, but slowly the ink began to appear in the shape of a dagger.

More details, small and large, became visible, and when Val pulled the rough sketch that she had made out of her pocket and compared them side by side, the resemblance was uncanny. Although the dagger was older and more worn away, and the picture in the book looked newer, it was obvious that they were one and the same.

Words showed up after a couple of minutes as well, and once they were clear enough to read, Val saw that they read _The Meyne family dagger._

 _What's a Meyne?_ Val wondered as she turned the page. She had never heard about them while she was studying history, nor had she met them during cabinet meetings in which she accompanied her brother and parents. Already suspicious, she set the second page - there were four - on fire and waited once more for the ink to develop.

This page was largely torn, not burned, but it was torn recklessly and without a pattern, as if the act was done in a hurry. Val could only make out a few of the words, which looked as if they were also written in a hurry, but she understood that there was some sort of a theme of fear, with words like _destroy_ and _run_ being repeated, as well as the mysterious _Meyne._

 _What the_ fuck _is a Meyne?_ The book up to now gave no explanation, as if the author expected her, the reader, to just know it. _They must have been prominent, then,_ she thought.

The next page was also torn, but it seemed to be a continuation of whatever was written on the previous page. She made out the words _history, disappeared,_ and _the Meyne house,_ and as she stared at the fading words when she removed the candle, puzzle pieces began to float in her mind, arranging themselves into a picture that she couldn't understand.

The final page was completely intact, to her surprise, but it was glued to the third page, so maybe whoever had destroyed the pages didn't notice it. However, it only had a single phrase and a sentence at the top, and neither of them helped her much.

_be destroyed, and we are losing hope, but it is important to remember that we must not despair. I conclude this journal by saying that the Meynes will rise again._

They had been a high-ranking family, erased from the pages of history for some reason and exiled far, far away. And they had had an expensive looking dagger, a dagger that was now in Gabby's possession.

 _Is Gabby a Meyne?_ Maybe Gabby and her siblings were descended from the family's high ranks, and the dagger that she had claimed had been passed on through her family for generations was the Meyne family dagger.

When Val pictured Gabby in a royal suit, just as she had when she had apprehended her, and her siblings in a suit and a beautiful dress, the image came easily, as if it had been waiting for her to uncover it.

_Elizabeth, Simon, and Gabriella Meyne. Seems about right._

It was evening by then, and she took the book and the sketch through the back door of the castle to the tavern.


	9. Gabriella

"John says to go to the tavern," Gabby said to Simon, looking into the reflective creek and trimming her hair with her dagger. "The princess has our payment and a message."

"What sort of message?" Simon asked. "And why couldn't she just come to us?"

"Their parents won't let them walk the streets alone. Just going to the tavern was a risk for her, she said."

"I doubt she knows what a risk is. Can I come with you?"

"Yeah, sure. I'm very curious as to what message she could possibly have for us. Apparently it's important."

Simon snorted. "'Important,' add that to the list of the words that she doesn't know. It's a very long list."

"Yep."

After Gabby had gotten cleaned up, the two made their way to the tavern, where Valeria was already waiting. Her hair was tied into a messy bun, and the dress that she was wearing was brown and simple, a sharp contrast to the beautiful dresses that she had been wearing during their last two encounters. She was sitting at a table, and she had a book and a piece of paper in front of her.

"Where's the silver?" Gabby demanded instantly.

"Right here." Valeria pulled it out of one of her pockets and placed it on the table. Gabby scooped it up and put it into her pocket, satisfied.

"I have a message for you, too."

"John told me. What is it?"

"I found your dagger in a book in our castle library. It says that it's a Meyne family relic and that the Meynes are some sort of high-ranking family lost to history. I was thinking about it, and I think you're a Meyne." Valeria showed her the book and slid the candle towards her.

"It doesn't say anything," Gabby said, confused.

"Set the pages on fire. Then the ink will show up."

Very confused at this point, Gabby followed Valeria's instructions to humor her, bringing the pages to the flame one at a time and watching the ink appear. Sure enough, on the first page was a picture of her dagger and the words _the Meyne family dagger_ , the second and third page were some kind of journal entry, and the fourth page claimed that the Meynes would rise again.

"They're _nobility,_ " Gabby said, the word tasting like poison on her tongue, just as it had from the moment she was born.

"Yes," said Valeria, sounding impatient. "And you're probably one of them."

"I don't think so. One of my ancestors stole the dagger, probably. My father used to say that people back then used to steal all the time. And if this is royal, then it would be very hard to steal, so my family would be proud of it and wouldn't want to give it away."

"But what if-"

" _No._ "

"But Gabriella-"

"Fuck off. I don't want to hear it. You keep pestering me all the damn time, I don't want more of this royal bullshit. I've had enough royalty for a lifetime."

Valeria was desperate, looking as if she was going to start pleading.

"I don't want to hear it. Fuck out of my life," Gabby repeated, grabbing Simon's hand and moving towards the door.

"God, she's so annoying!" she said, loudly so that the princess would hear her.

"I know, right? 'You're royalty like me!' I don't think so, honey. Can't she just leave us alone?"

"Add 'leave me alone' to the list, too."

"For real."

"I HEARD THAT!" a voice came from behind them, sounding as if it was about to cry.

"Good!" Gabby yelled behind her as they left, hopefully never to see each other again.


	10. Valeria

As Val moved through the streets that would lead her back home, holding her things in her hand, she felt as if she was going to cry, but the tears wouldn't come, which, she had already decided much earlier, was the worst feeling in the world. Why did Gabby hate her? What had she ever done to the girl, besides things that she had no control over?

It was only when she got to the back door and slumped down against the wall that she began to sob, another thing that she couldn't control, wondering why she so desperately wanted to be friends with someone so rude and so judgmental. She was sad, angry, and frustrated, every single negative emotion in the world seeming to swirl inside of her, so she did what she always did in these situations: she went to Carlos.

"Oh, hey, Val. What is it?" he asked. He was sitting at his desk and writing something down when she walked in. Turning around in his chair, he saw Val sniffling and recovering from tears, and he went to her, took her things, placed them on his desk, and wrapped her in a hug. Her sobs resumed once more into his chest, and it was only when she pulled away and sat down on his bed that he finally asked her what was wrong.

"Remember the girl that I was sad about on the evening of the parade?"

"Yeah, what about her?"

"She was the one who helped us find Gab and Mili. And today I went to her with this to tell her something, and she told me to fuck off and leave her alone and called me annoying."

"I had a bad feeling about her. She's just a shitty person, Val. Don't worry about her. You deserve better. What did you want to tell her?"

Val picked the book and the candle up off of the desk and showed him what she had discovered for herself and then shown Gabby, explaining the conclusion that she had drawn in the process.

"Wow," said Carlos when she was finished. "And she didn't believe you?"

"She hates royalty, remember? I'm assuming that includes nobility also."

"Fair enough. Still, though."

There was silence after that, Carlos having moved from his desk and placed his arm around her, placing her head on his shoulder.

"I'm going to figure this out on my own, with or without her," said Val, looking determinedly in front of her, wiping tears out of her eyes. "I don't need Gabby to help me. Even if she won't use what I find, _I'm going to solve this_."

"That's the spirit," said Carlos. "You don't need Gabriella. I can help you."

"Thanks, Carl." Val looked up at her older brother and smiled.

"If we find anything," he said after a moment's thought, "it's going to be in the North Library."

"What's the North Library?"

"You didn't learn about it in your classes?"

"If I did, I didn't retain it properly."

"Jesus, Valeria, how are you related to me?"

"I don't know, Carlos. I don't know. Anyway, what is it?"

"The North Library is a library in the very north of our kingdom that's known for having every single record in world history. It was established during Nicolas the Second's reign if I remember correctly. It's very far away, but we can pack our things and travel if it's that important. I'll come with you if you want to go there, I don't trust you alone, you're inexperienced in fighting, and I've had training. What do you say?"

"I want to go," said Val without thinking. It would be dangerous, and it would take a long time, but she had developed a sudden attachment to this mystery, probably because Gabby had thrown it out of the window as she had.

"All right," Carlos said. "We'll leave at the end of the Festival, because Mom and Dad are traveling, and it's going to be easier for us to get away. If you change your mind before then, which you probably won't, but if you do, it's okay, then we'll call it off, no worries."

"I'm not changing my mind."

"Okay, okay. I have to finish my essay now, so if you want to hang out, then do it quietly."

"I have to answer letters," Val said, picking up her things and leaving. "See you, Carl."

"Bye, Valium."

"Valium?"

"It's an element that we learned about in chemistry today. It sounds like Vally, so I'm going to call you that from now on."

"Can I call you Carlbon?"

Carlos threw a pillow at her back, and she laughed as she left through the door and walked to her room.

 

The next morning, Val woke up with a new, strange sense of determination. Changing into a simple shirt and trousers and tying her hair back into a ponytail without brushing it, she went downstairs, grabbed quick breakfast, and asked one of the servants to accompany her on her walk. The servant in question was Alexandra, who became bored and disinterested as soon as they left the room, so she drifted away as they were walking through the streets, allowing Val to follow the familiar path to the outskirts of town where Gabby lived. When she arrived at the house, Lizzy was outside picking flowers.

"Vally! Is that you?" she asked, looking up and grinning.

"Yep! Is your sister here?"

"Gabby's busy. And she said that I shouldn't talk to you. But I don't listen to her. Can you braid my hair?"

"Of course." Lizzy sat down, and Val got onto her knees and brushed her hair with her fingers. She was almost done with the complex braid, which involved the flowers that Lizzy had picked, when Gabby came from the woods, accompanied by Simon. She had looked exhausted, but it seemed as if her face gained life through anger as she practically ran over to the two.

"Lizzy, what did I tell you about the princess?"

"She's not bothering me, she's just braiding my hair."

"Yes, but she probably came over to bother _me_. Didn't you, Your Royal Highness?"

"Yes," Val said casually, taking a particularly beautiful blue flower from Lizzy's hand and adding it to her hair.

"Oh, so you finally admit it. Fuck out of here."

"I was just going to ask you if you'd like to go on a road trip to the far north of the kingdom with me and Carlos. We're going to be figuring out who your family really is."

"Didn't I tell you yesterday that I don't care about that? Do you not speak English? Should I tell you in Spanish?"

"I speak Spanish, too. You can tell me in any language, I just won't listen."

"Jesus fuck. Do you ever know when to stop?"

"Nope. I want you to come with me. I need your experience. Besides, who knows. Maybe I'm right, and you _are_ a Meyne."

"I don't think so. Now, you can leave right now, or my brother here and I will make this harder than it should be."

"I can't leave right now," said Val angrily. "I'm finishing your sister's braid. I'll leave after I finish it. _Please_ come with us."

"I hate both of you, and Simon and Lizzy will be all alone here while I chase some sort of weird conspiracy theory. I _can't._ "

"You can leave me and Simon with John!" Lizzy exclaimed, and Val was surprised by how quickly she took her side.

"Think about it. If you go, the worst thing that will happen is...nothing. And the best thing is that you'll be rich, and you won't be homeless ever again."

Gabby stared at her in silence, and Val wondered what was going on in her head right now. In fact, she wondered what was going on in her head all the time.

"Fine," she said after a while, voice filled with reluctance. "When do we leave?"

"After the Festival of Stars. Talk to me or Carlos before then so we can figure this out.

"Okay."

As Val left and found Alexandra flirting with a pretty girl in the marketplace, she wondered what she had gotten herself into.


	11. Gabriella

On the morning of the Sunday after the week-long Festival of Stars, Gabby had packed her things, which consisted of her dagger and a small amount of food, taken Simon and Lizzy to John's tavern, and left them with a good-bye to wait in front of the castle for Valeria and Carlos to leave. When they finally did, both dressed in shirts and trousers, Carlos holding his sword and Valeria a bag of something, it was late morning, just as they had planned, and Gabby had been ready for a long time.

"What's that?" she asked, gesturing at the, quite frankly, huge bag that Valeria was holding.

"Just food and the evidence that we have," Valeria said. "And some clean clothes. We might need them for the journey ahead."

"I brought some money," Carlos added. "We're probably going to have to buy things on our journey."

"And a map of the kingdom," Valeria put in again.

"Well, _you’re_ certainly well-prepared. You ready to leave?"

"Obviously."

"Let's go then. Carlos, you have the map, lead the way. Valeria and I will go behind."

"Oh, we're taking horses," said Carlos. "Val and I have our own. You can share one with her."

Gabby flinched at the very thought of sharing a horse with the princess, but she nodded.

"Okay. Fine. Where are they?"

"I already brought them out. Let me lead you."

The horses, a large black with brown and white spots and a smaller silver-white, were saddled up and standing by the gate. Carlos climbed onto the large one, and Gabby got behind Valeria on the small one. As soon as all three were settled in, the royal siblings started their horses to move away from the capital and onto the road that led to the northern part of the kingdom. Gabby didn't even think to look back; all she could focus on was the hilly landscape up ahead that was dotted with trees and flowers.

The horses were royal horses, so they were specifically bred and trained to move quickly, but not too quickly so as not to spend strength. Even so, Gabby felt wind sting the skin of her face, blowing her hair behind her. It was painful and cold at first, but as the sun rose in the sky, it became satisfying somehow, and she almost forgot how she was sitting on a horse behind the person that she hated, forgot about everything but the beautiful, relaxing feeling.

For another couple of hours, they rode, until Carlos stopped his horse so that they could take a break and have lunch. They sat under the shade of a tree, Carlos and Valeria eating sandwiches while chatting and giggling, and Gabby a distance away eating the squirrel that she had caught, cleaned, and roasted a day before in preparation for this.

"And then he had the audacity to say that my sword wasn't properly crafted!" Gabby heard Carlos exclaim. "My sword was more properly crafted than his will _ever_ be."

"Well, it's not your fault that his sword looks like his blacksmith ate metal and then vomited it into a bowl," Valeria giggled.

Gabby looked to her right side at the blade, which was in between herself and the siblings. It was truly a fine weapon, she thought, long and sharp with a well-designed handle that, just like her dagger, had something carved into it. While she was a close-range fighter and would be able to more easily defend herself with her own short knife if she needed to, Carlos seemed like he would be the type to fight long-range, in a more sophisticated way, as opposed to her own brutal, blunt style.

"It was professionally crafted by one of the castle blacksmiths," said Carlos when he saw Gabby looking at it. "I got it for my birthday a year ago."

"My parents passed my blade on to me before they died," Gabby said in response.

"Oh, may I see it?"

"No."

"You saw _my_ sword. And looked at it for a long time, might I say."

Gabby wanted to come up with a witty retort for that, but she was unable to; reluctantly, she took the dagger out of her belt and placed it on the grass next to her, signaling without using words that she didn't want him to touch it.

Carlos, thankfully, respected her wishes; he got onto his stomach and began to inspect it.

"This looks professionally crafted, too," he said. "And you keep it sharp. I'm not a good short-range fighter, but if I was, I would want to use something like this."

"I don't know what kind of fighter I am," Gabby said. "I've never held a sword, this is the only weapon that I've ever owned."

"Why don't you use my sword and see? You don't have to if you don't want to, but-"

Out of curiosity, Gabby picked up the sword by the hilt, instantly shocked at how light it was compared to its length and visible thickness. She stood up, moved farther into the field, and waved it around. Although it was light, it felt clunky in her hand, and she found that using it was very uncomfortable.

"I prefer my dagger," she said. "Much easier to wield."

"I can respect that. This really is a good weapon."

"Want to try and use it?" Gabby had developed a newfound respect for the boy and his genuine interest in the art of battle, a respect that she didn't think she would ever come close to developing for his sister.

"I'm probably going to fail horrendously, but here goes." Carlos picked it up and began to wave it around, but his strategies suited the sword more, arm waving around on a far range, and the dagger seemed awkward in his hand.

Gabby laughed. "You've got good technique. But when you use a dagger, you have to do something different. Here, let me show you." Food long forgotten on the grassy ground, she stepped towards Carlos, standing behind him and gently moving his arm to show him where it was supposed to be. For a long time, both demonstrated to each other the techniques of their weapons, and Gabby forgot completely how much she had hated him, forgot about everything except for how much she was trying to remember what she was now learning.

"Have you ever fought someone with this?" Carlos asked, holding up the dagger.

"One time. Some asshole tried to steal my money."

"And you threatened to kill me with it, don't forget," Valeria called.

" _You ruined my food!_ " Gabby yelled in her direction, gesturing with the sword in her right hand. _Jesus Christ, will she_ ever _admit that she was in the wrong?_

"You threatened my sister?" Carlos asked.

"She was walking around in the middle of my night, and she found my secret food stash and got dirt all over it. It ruined it. All I did was take her necklace as payment. Not a scratch on her."

"Both of you, apologize," Carlos commanded, eyebrows furrowing, looking as if he was holding something back that he wanted to say.

"Fuck no, I'm not apologizing to her," said Gabby. "She ruined my food."

"And _she_ tried to kill me. And then stole my necklace."

"Both of you were in the wrong," said Carlos. "Literally none of you was a saint. And we can't have in-fighting on this journey. So apologize. Please, Val."

"I'm sorry," said Gabby reluctantly, looking down at the ground.

"I'm sorry, too," Val responded with even more reluctance.

Carlos looked unsatisfied, but he nodded. "Thank you. Do you guys want to keep going or break a bit more?"

"Let's keep going," said Val, and Gabby nodded in agreement.

"We've breaked enough."

They got back onto their horses and continued riding, still in silence. Meanwhile, Gabby turned over in her head what had happened.

Maybe Carlos was a tiny bit tolerable, if only because he could actually be of use if they got into a fight of some sort. And he had been kind enough to she her his techniques, to the point where if this kept up, in a while, they could even be called friends. Yes, his sister was still insufferable, and yes, she wasn't sure why she had even come along on this journey, but the brother was at least all right. And that, in her opinion, was enough to make this journey just a little bit worth it.


	12. Valeria

It was night-time when they stopped again, agreed to set shifts to guard their belongings, and set up camp to go to sleep once more. Val agreed to take first shift, Carlos sleeping on her lap, ready to wake up at a moment's notice to help her fight invaders. However, as Val looked down at him, she noticed that his eyes were open, staring up at the few stars that shone through the clouds.

"Do you think it'll rain?" she asked him, whispering so as not to wake Gabby, though she wasn't sure the girl was even sleeping.

"They don't look like storm clouds," he said, also in a whisper. "But I'm not an expert. If anything happens, we can probably duck into an inn or tavern."

"Yeah."

"Gabby isn't as bad as I thought she was," Carlos said after a moment of mutual silence. "I mean, I still don't understand why she doesn't like you, but hey. She's smart, she's skilled, and I feel like we have things in common."

" _We'll_ never have _anything_ in common," said Val, a tinge of bitterness and perhaps longing lacing her voice. "She'll always hate me, no matter what I do. Why does she have to hate me, Carl?"

"I can understand why."

"Wow, thanks."

"No, I didn't mean it like that. I mean that she grew up on the streets, and you have to get used to not trusting people after a life like that."

"She trusted _you_."

"Not exactly. And we had fighting as a mutual topic. Keep trying, Valium. Maybe you'll find something that you both like."

"I don't think so. I mean, she's so...intense. And I'm just peaceful little Val."

"I don't know. I've seen you be intense. I've been to your rallies and meetings. You've worked _tirelessly_. And she works tirelessly too, only instead of trying to get same-sex marriage passed, she's just trying not to die. She could do great things if she had our privilege."

Val thought about what she knew about Gabby, about her skill and intellect and willingness to stick to her opinion and stay there despite people telling her to stop. "Yeah, I think so, too."

"See, there you go. That's something that you share. And your drives compounded could change this kingdom forever. Just _try_ , all right?"

"Fine. But only for you. The girl is _insufferable_."

"I don't care who you do it for, just do it."

"I'm already trying. I mean, I _did_ invite her here, even though I have no idea why the hell I did that."

"Are you sure that you don't know?"

Val looked ahead, hand on her brother's shoulder. "I guess I just wanted to prove to her that my theory had weight. That's about it. If I'm wrong, she's probably going to gloat. I'm regretting that decision right now."

"So get close to her. And even if you don't find what you're looking for, then you'll have made a new friend out of it."

"I'd love to become friends with her," Val confessed, thinking about how much she had cried when Gabby had told her to fuck off for the first time. "But I don't think _she_ wants to become friends with _me_."

"Maybe not now. But she will. Trust me, she will."

"If you say so."


	13. Gabriella

Before moving again, the three sat in a circle, Gabby slightly farther away from the other two, and ate breakfast. It seemed to Gabby as if Valeria and Carlos were saying something to each other without speaking. Finally, Carlos looked at his sister pointedly, and Valeria turned to her.

"So, how did you sleep last night?" she asked.

"Fine, why? Did something happen?"

"No, nothing happened. I was just curious."

 _Why the hell is she suddenly making conversation?_ "Oh," said Gabby, now completely weirded out.

"What's that you're eating?" Carlos asked her, grinning at Val.

"Oh, just a piece of deer. I fried it a day before we left."

"Is it any good?" Valeria asked curiously. "I've never had deer."

Truly, that particular deer was stringy and not at all delicious, even though she usually enjoyed deer's juicy taste whenever she found a fat one. However, not wanting to spark a conversation about that, she merely nodded. "I like deer. It's my favorite kind of meat."

"We're having veal sandwiches with eggs," said Valeria. "Do you want one? We packed _way_ too many, and they're going to spoil soon."

Gabby very rarely had the opportunity to eat eggs, but when she did, they were her favorite thing to eat for breakfast. Torn between shutting down the royals' attempts at friendship and her curiosity as to what eggs would taste like with veal, she eventually picked the latter, and she nodded and stretched out her hand, into which Carlos placed an egg from the sack.

"Thanks." When Gabby bit into it, it was amazing; evidently, it had been crafted in a royal kitchen, most likely even by royal chefs (she very highly doubted that Val and Carlos had prepared it themselves).

"This is good!" she said aloud without thinking about anything but the sharp contrast between her food and theirs.

"Do you like veal?" Valeria asked, putting away the napkin in which she was holding her own sandwich.

"I _love_ it. Don't get to eat it that often, it _is_ expensive, but it's up there with deer in my book."

"I like veal, too. It with eggs is the perfect breakfast. My parents used to tease me about it all the time. They would call me Vealeria Greggshawk instead of Valeria Greyhawk."

Gabby laughed. "Can I call you that? It's a much better name in my opinion."

"As long as I can call you, uh..." The princess strained to think of a proper nickname.

"If I can call you Vealeria Greggshawk, you can call me whatever you want. Even 'uh...'."

Valeria giggled. "We've got a deal."

It was only as they were riding on the horse, following the map that Carlos had, that Gabby remembered that she despised the princess with a passion. She tried to keep this anger in her mind when they stopped again for lunch, this time inside a small inn, where Carlos ordered water and pasta.

"So, what do you do in your free time?" Valeria asked. "Besides hunting, I mean."

"Not much, really. Mainly I just try to survive, help my siblings. I don't have time for anything else. Unlike you. I mean, you don't have to do anything to survive. I bet you have all the time in the world to do whatever you want."

Valeria looked as if she were about to wince, but then she nodded. "I guess I _do_ have a lot of free time. I just don't use it, because I'm too busy campaigning."

"Campaigning for what?"

"Same-sex marriage to be passed in the kingdom. Haven't you heard?"

"I don't follow popular news. Isn't same-sex activity already allowed?"

"Activity, yes, but not marriage. You know, if you're with someone as the same sex, it's just experimentation. Just a little bit of fun. I don't want it to be just a little bit of fun. I want it to be seen as _love_ , just like opposite-sex activity."

 _Maybe there's more to her than I thought._ Gabby could see Valeria's brown eyes shine, face screwed up into a strange mixture of anger, excitement, and determination as she spoke.

"Are you gay?"

"Bisexual, actually. But you don't have to be gay _or_ bisexual to be an ally. I have plenty of straight people helping me out." This was said in a tired tone of voice, as if she had had to explain this numerous times.

"Interesting."

"Uh-huh. I've been working for _years,_ but the judges won't listen to me or my mom. You know, the law is that they obey no one, but I don't think that they would care about that if my dad was the official ruler and not my mom. And maybe they would care more about my cause if Carlos was leading it and not me."

Gabby found herself taking a strange interest in what the other girl was saying, nodding along as she spoke with that continued excitement.

"But I don't need my dad _or_ Carlos. I'll make them listen to me if it's the last thing I do. And I'm not stopping until I've reached my goal."

"What will you do after you reach it?" Gabby asked.

"Keep going, probably. We've still got a long way to go before we reach full acceptance of everyone."

"I see."

Valeria smiled, and Gabby smiled back in spite of herself. It was most likely the first smile that she had ever given the other girl, she thought to herself, but whether it would be the last she genuinely didn't know.

"Let's go?" Carlos suggested. He had finished his food, and so had Gabby, and Valeria was eating her last obit.

"Let's go." Gabby stood up, picked her dagger up (Carlos had tried to get her to leave it somewhere outside, but she had explained to him that she would never leave it alone with anyone, no matter what), and moved to leave. Valeria was lost in thought of something, and even as she finished, she stared blankly ahead, not paying attention to anything that was going on.

"Valeria!" Gabby called to try and get her attention.

"Val!" Carlos did the same thing as he put away his things.

"Val!" Gabby tried again, and it was only as Valeria stood up, leaving her plate behind that she realized that it was the first time that she had called the princess by her nickname.

Evidently, Val herself noticed it too, because she let Carlos move ahead and walked by Gabby's side, whispering to her, "I like it when you call me Val and not Valeria. You should do it more often. I already call you Gabby."

"Fair enough."

As they walked to their horses, Gabby thought about how odd it was that she felt a liking towards the person that she was supposed to hate.


	14. Valeria

The next few days passed uneventfully from Val's perspective; each hour flew by in a flurry of day-long horseback rides, erratic eating and sleeping patterns during which neither of the three was sure whether they would spend the night in an inn or on the grass, and the inklings of an awkward friendship forming between her and Gabby.

At the beginning of their relationship, Val would without a moment's hesitation have said that the two were enemies, or, at the very least, that Gabby despised her with a passion (she herself had felt ambiguous about the other girl). During the course of their road trip, however, some kind of a change had happened. Their conversations were no longer flooded with barrages of insults, and it seemed like ever since they had talked in the tavern about her cause, Gabby had developed some kind of a respect for her. However, their rare conversations much more resembled small talk about the weather and the events of the day, much like what Val talked about with the adult servants or the strangers in the tavern, not the conversation about ideas or plans for the future that she had long conversations about with Carlos or her closest friends.

_Gabby would be interesting to talk to about these kinds of things, actually._ As Val watched the girl, she became more and more sure of this. Just as Carlos had said, she was smart and well-learned, and she had some sort of a drive to succeed, and their minds together could definitely accomplish great things. If there was some sort of an opportunity to instantly bring them out of this limbo and into true friendship, Val thought, she would have taken it without a second thought.

"How long have we been traveling, do you know?" Gabby asked Carlos one afternoon when they made a brief lunch stop.

"A week and a half. I've been counting. If that huge building that we passed an hour ago was the Winter Palace, which it _was_ , then we're halfway there."

Gabby's face broke out into a grin. "That's great! And we haven't died yet, so I think that's an accomplishment." She held her hand up for a high five, and Carlos returned it.

_Now there's true friendship,_ Val thought, somewhat bitterly, as she watched the two. Although Gabby had hated them both equally at first, she had quickly warmed up to Carlos over a shared passion for battle and a skill at negotiation, and now they had eager conversations and even, it seemed, one or two inside jokes. Sometimes, Val felt like a spare part in their well-oiled machine.

"Honestly, I feel like you're most of the reason we're still alive," Carlos said, running a hand through his hair, which had grown long over the course of their journey.

"Oh, so you finally admit it," Gabby giggled. "Well, thank your sister for bringing me along, then."

"Thanks, Val!" Carlos turned around so he could look at her.

Val smiled slightly over her sandwich. "Any time."

 

Even if Val was a spare part in the machine, it ran smoothly; for the next week and a half, there was, to the whole group's surprise, relatively little trouble. Yes, there had been shop owners who had tried to scam them out of a fair price, but Gabby was a skilled negotiator, and Carlos was training to be one, so they managed, sometimes through peaceful conversation and sometimes through yelling, to get their way. And sometimes, there were people who tried to grab Val and Carlos after recognizing them as the missing royal siblings ("We left a note," both would complain to each other), but Val had grown very skilled at managing a crowd, so those crises were, too, averted.

When she had been thinking about their journey during the Festival of Stars, Val had imagined every possible negative outcome. But now, to her surprise, it had been a relatively peaceful journey. She was thinking about this on the night before their second trip, wrapped in a blanket that they had somehow managed to get for free and looking at the sky while trying and failing to fall asleep. She had always enjoyed stargazing back at home, and she enjoyed it now, admiring how there was a sort of wild beauty that she didn't find in the capital. The night air was just cold enough to be pleasantly cool under her blanket, but also just warm enough so that she didn't freeze. The moon was half full, and she knew from watching it every night that it was growing in size. Although the stars were dim, they were still there, and Val thought about what it would be like to be up there among them, floating through space, looking down at the earth below her and seeing the people, the places, the forests in an angle that she never had. How relaxing that would be, and how beautiful, and-

"THIEVES!"

Val's stupor was broken by Gabby's sudden, angry scream, followed by the rustle of leaves as Carlos stood up and grabbed his sword. Hesitantly, she stood up, leaving the blanket behind her, and hid behind the tree that she was leaning against, peeking out at the scene as she considered what she should do. She wouldn't be much use if she came out and helped, and she would probably get herself injured and force her companions to help her, but at the same time, she was filled with an overwhelming sense of guilt as she thought about hiding.

"Get away from our shit," Val heard Gabby's voice, and from her angle, she could see that she was pointing her dagger at one of the thieves, who was reaching for their shared bag.

"No, fuck you, I want it," he said as two of his friends came up behind him. Now he had grabbed the bag and was digging through it. Val could barely suppress a laugh as she thought about how they had their trash, as well as the evidence, which he would probably find worthless.

"Too bad, it's ours." This was Carlos, finally showing up, long sword in his hand.

"You're going to have to fight for your stuff." One of the background thieves reached into his pocket and pulled out a dagger that looked as if it were longer, sharper, and overall fancier than Gabby's own.

"GET AWAY FROM OUR SHIT!" Gabby yelled once again. Val had to strain to see because of the dark, but she vaguely saw her tall figure reach its foot out and give the digging thief a sharp kick in the side.

It was at that moment that everything descended into chaos. All Val could see was shapeless blobs fighting with each other, all she could hear was grunts and yells and the clinking of weapons, and all she could think was _Now._

Standing on tiptoes, she wrapped her arms around a thick branch of the tree in front of her, straining to pull herself up without making a sound, feet pushing her up slightly as they touched the trunk. She planned to get up there and then help Gabby and Carlos by attacking from above, maybe create a distraction by making some kind of noise. It was her plans that she was thinking about when she felt a sharp tug on her leg, effectively pulling her down from the tree and making her fall flat onto someone else's body. With lightning-fast reflexes that made her wonder how the hell it happened, the someone else stood up, wrapped his - it was a he, judging by the smell and the body type - arms around her, stood up, and pressed her against the tree.

"Trying to get away, aren't you?" he hissed, grinning and showing his crooked, yellowing teeth.

"Red, that's the princess, by the looks of her. The missing one. Valeria." This was a second thief, walking up behind him and inspecting her closely.

"Are you?" the first one asked, pressing her deeper into the tree, and Val was too terrified to do anything but nod.

"Princess Valeria Greyhawk," he said melodiously, though it was hard to apply that word to his rough, huge frame. "Do you have any valuables on you?"

To this Val gave no reply; the truth was no, but if she said so, they would kidnap _her_ as a valuable, and if she said yes, they would probably punish her somehow for lying.

"No answer? Well, then, let's check."

_Damn._

In another fluid motion, he took a knife from the back of his belt - not a dagger, a regular kitchen knife, though it was so dirty and rusted that it had probably not been used for its original purpose for a long, long time - grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, and sliced it open down the middle. At this Val could not repress a gasp, hands instinctively flying to her now-exposed skin and covering up her chest.

"She doesn't have a necklace," the first thief said. "Maybe she has something in her pockets? You check, I'll hold her."

The second thief walked over, pushed her away from the tree slightly, and began to dig through the pockets of her trousers, accidentally, or perhaps not, pulling down her pants slightly in the process.

"Nothing here. Secret pockets, maybe?"

At this both thieves began to pat her, feeling up every part of her body and even her hair, slowly taking off her clothes, Val still too helpless to react. Everything was overwhelming, the fight still happening behind her, and the set of thieves continued to touch her, and it seemed as if the entire world was at a standstill, nothing but this event happening. Val was too shocked, too tired, too close to tears to even scream, and she felt as if she were going to die in this very spot, and everything was still happening all at once and-

All of a sudden it stopped.

The thieves dropped onto the ground, something liquid squirting out of their throats and their chests and all over Val's now-down trousers as they let out a gasp. It took a couple of seconds to register that they were dead, and that they were _killed,_ and that a tall figure with short curly hair was standing in front of her, looking at a dagger in her right hand.

"Gabby?" Val asked incredulously, hardly able to say the word through the remnants of fear.

"I killed them," Gabby whispered, so quietly that Val had to lean in to hear. "I killed them. With my dagger. That was the first time I ever killed anyone. Ever."

Val felt weak in the legs, as if she was soon going to collapse, so she leaned against the tree, a sob pressing itself against her rib cage.

Suddenly, everything exploded in light, and when Val looked over, Carlos had come, freshly lit torch in his hand illuminating his shocked expression as he looked at the two girls.

"The thieves left, I guess they got discouraged, and-Are you okay?"

His brown eyes looked left at Val, faint and dizzy and about to cry, and Gabby, shocked and looking down at her bloody hands.

"I killed him," she kept whispering. "I killed them-but Carlos, I didn't mean to! They were attacking Val, and they were doing something to her, and all I could think about was how they could hurt her and I needed to get them off and I just...killed them!"

"Hey," Carlos said, stepping forward and putting his hand on her shoulder. "Hey. It's okay. You did what you had to do. I would have done the same."

As Gabby relaxed under Carlos's touch, he turned to his sister.

"Did they... _do_ anything to you?"

"No, they just wanted my stuff," Val said, recovering from her shock.

"You never know with people on the street," said Gabby. "I mean, they _did_ take off your clothes and slice open your shirt."

"We'll get you new clothes when we stop by the market tomorrow," said Carlos. "In the meantime, you can wrap yourself in that blanket you were sleeping under. Let's go rest now. I'll take watch, you two need a break." Carlos took the torch and his sword to the road, and Gabby picked up Val and squatted down.

"Bet you never thought your first kill would have to do with me," Val joked as the two curled up under the blanket, Gabby's dagger in a sheath by her side, as it always was when she was sleeping.

"Actually, I never thought that it would happen at all," Gabby confessed. "I mean, there's a lot of violence on the streets, and I've seen a death or two actually, but you can go your whole life without killing a single person. I thought I would be one of those people. And I wasn't exactly thinking much when I killed those people. I just saw that you were in danger and rushed to help."

"I'm glad you did," said Val, looking over at the taller girl and smiling. She shifted her gaze forward as she imagined all of the things that could have happened to her if Gabby hadn't come when she had. She shivered in spite of herself, and she felt her heart beat faster in her chest as she relived the most terrifying moments of her life.

Gabby grabbed her and pulled her closer, and she was so much bigger than Val that she could comfortably put her head on her shoulder. "It's okay now. You're with me. I'll protect you from now on, is that okay? I'll _always_ protect you."

Gabby gave nice hugs, Val realized, and this was the first one that she had ever received from her. Val leaned into her more, and under that comforting touch, combined with the coolness of the night air and the tiredness that she was feeling, she fell asleep quickly.


	15. Gabriella

Gabby was woken up with a gentle pat on her shoulder by Carlos in the middle of the night, just as she had been for the past few weeks.

"Are you okay enough to stand watch?" he asked in a whisper. "I can do it again if you need me to. I don't mind. Honestly."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Gabby whispered back, gently removing her arms from Val's body, where they had remained after comforting her the night before.

"Well, I'll stand watch with you anyway. I can't sleep."

Under normal circumstances, Gabby would have refused; her mind was still overflowing, and she needed silence and alone time to calm herself down. Carlos, though, had become her confidant, just as he had been Val's before their journey. She was completely sure that she could talk to him if something was bothering her, and she was even more sure that he would leave her alone and not try to talk to her when she didn't want to, like now.

The watch seemed boring, almost bland, after the events of the night up to that point. Carlos and Gabby sat by each other's side, clutching their weapons, and waiting for a threat that never came. And Gabby stared ahead, playing with the grass by her side absentmindedly, and remembered something else that had happened, much, much earlier.

"I was barely a child," she said aloud, not looking at Carlos, who was still silent next to her. "Lizzy was just a baby. Just a fucking baby that I carried around in my arms. And Simon, my brother, was right next to me, and he was holding the food and gold and my dagger as we walked through the streets. I couldn't hunt back then, you know. We were barely surviving. And I was a fucking child, and I had to be the leader of the family, just because I was the oldest. And I didn't know what to do. And one time, I was walking through a dark alleyway to get back to our house. And Simon was carrying Lizzy this time, and I was carrying the shit that we had. And someone knocked me into a wall and kept hitting me into the wall and tried to get what I was holding. He actually got it. He was big and muscular and fat and I was just a little girl. I don't know what else he would have done if he hadn't had to leave."

Gabby paused. "If I were with my parents, I would have cried. Just fucking _sobbed_ into their shoulders, and they would have hugged me and said that everything was going to be all right. But no. I couldn't cry, because then Simon and Lizzy would cry, and I didn't want them to cry just because their sister had had something happen to her. Something that wasn't even that important. I couldn't care about it for too long, because on the streets, if you think too long, you _die_. That's the simple thing. You get stabbed."

Another pause, as the road became blurry, and she closed her eyes to blink the tears away. "And Val back there, she was me. She was me as a child, she was helpless, and I didn't even _care_ how annoying I used to think she was. And I remembered that back when that happened to me, I wanted someone to kill the person who did it. But it wasn't a clear thought, you know? It was just this blur, and then I ran forward, and they were dead. And Val was safe."

_Safe_. She had never had the privilege of safety when she was growing up. She had worked to it, yes, or at least some sort of prototype. And Val had been robbed of it in those few moments, and a cruel version of her would have bitterly decided that if she couldn't have it, no one could, and walked along.

But Gabby hadn't been a cruel version of her. People had called her an asshole more times than she could count, but she knew that there were people who were much, much worse.

Gabby didn't know how it happened, but soon she was in tears, loud sobs openly cutting through the cool night air. Hesitantly, Carlos hugged her, and she hugged him back, continuing to stare ahead, feeling his own sobs in her shoulder. They stayed like that for another couple of minutes, Gabby still focused intently on the watch in spite of herself, after which Gabby stood up and said, "I need to check on Val."

She walked over to the other side of the tree and looked at the girl. It was hard to believe that they were the same age; she was much shorter, and she seemed even smaller now, hugging the blanket as she slept, breathing even. Her hair was still in the ponytail that it had been during the day, so Gabby knelt down, gently undid the ribbon, and wrapped it around her wrist.

Val's skin, Gabby realized, was smooth, and though it was oily from weeks of not having much time and clean sources of water to wash it, it was still pleasantly soft and dark, though not as dark as her own. Her face, too, was smooth, free of any zits and pimples that used to plague her own skin before a friend of hers had given her a special cream as a gift. Her nose was small, and if Gabby had to describe it to someone for any reason, she would refer to it as a button. Long eyelashes gently grazed low cheekbones, dark hair now falling over her face, and Gabby was surprised by how the first word that came to mind was beautiful.

Val's mouth was slightly parted as she slept, with full lips, through which a tiny bit of drool was leaving. As Gabby held her, not even realizing that she had initiated the hug, she felt the smaller girl shake a little bit, as if her near-death experience was haunting her nightmares.

"You're okay now," Gabby whispered before standing up, gently taking her hand.

"Is she all right?" Carlos's voice sounded behind her. Gabby jumped; she hadn't even realized that he had approached her, probably because he was moving quietly so as not to awaken his sister.

"I think so. She seems to be having a nightmare, but at least she's sleeping. She isn't _completely_ traumatized."

"That's good."

"Let's head back, then."

Once they were back at the front, looking at the road with weapons by their sides, Gabby spoke again.

"She said that she was bisexual, when we were talking about her cause. Do you know what that means?"

"Of course I know what it means, I'm her brother. Basically, it means that you like both guys and girls."

Gabby smiled, feeling a sense of shame at not knowing such a simple definition. "You can do that? Like both?"

"Yeah, of course. Why not?"

"I don't know. I only ever heard of liking one or the other."

"Are _you_ bisexual?" Carlos asked, looking over at her. "A lot of people think that they're one or the other, but they never realize that they can actually be both. Val tells me about it all the time."

At this Gabby shook her head and looked down at her feet. "I don't think so. I don't know."

Gabby had never given much thought to her sexuality; everyone had just assumed that she liked boys, as was, for some reason, the default, and she had thought the exact same way. She sure as hell didn't like _girls_. Either way, it didn't matter if she liked one or the other or both or even neither, because there wouldn't be a reason for her to ever get married.

Now, however, as she remembered the feeling of Val's warm body against her own, and her soft skin that made her gentle, but in a way that made her heart freeze up inside of her, face heating up at the mere thought of talking to her, as she experienced feelings that she had never experienced before, Gabby felt her world shift, rocking side to side and coming close to turning upside down.

_Childhood._ Her parents had always told her that she would find a nice boy someday, a pretty boy that would make her heart race and make her the happiest person alive, just like her mother was when she met her father. They would always kiss then, and Gabby had wondered what it felt like to be the happiest person alive. Maybe someday, that was how she would feel.

_Later._ After her parents had died, Gabby had no longer thought about that kind of stuff. There was no hope for happiness on the streets, no hope for happiness now that her mother had left them and they were separated and it seemed like nothing would ever be happy again, ever. _I don't want to marry anyone,_ she had whispered to herself every morning. _I have to take care of Simon. I have to take care of Lizzy._

_Aging._ Gabby soon learned to fend for herself, learned by watching and practicing to negotiate and talk to people to get what she wanted. Before she had gotten enough confidence to develop an intimidating persona, she was a meek talker, agreeing with what everyone said and nothing more. This included women, the hatred for whom was already beginning to develop inside Gabby's heart, talking about boys that they knew whom they deemed "cute" and "hot" and used a bunch of different pet names for. When Gabby looked at them, she felt nothing; not the racing hearts that the girls wrote poems about, not any kind of desire to kiss them, not even a thought of wrapping her arms around them and cuddling as they talked about marriage and babies. Just a curiosity as to if they would be good hunting partners or were rich enough to have the items that she needed to trade for.

_Now._ Gabby had grown up all alone, nothing but a set of friends and two younger siblings that needed to be taken care of, and never remotely in her mind had she thought about anything more. But Val was different from the women that she had encountered in her life; she was determined and strong in her own way, and she was smart and good at talking to people, even if she didn't have the personality needed to be a negotiator. And, worst of all, she was beautiful, and Gabby found herself understanding the men that called her the moon among the kingdom's stars, understood them as she had never understood the women who had called Carlos the sun that would light up anyone's desire.

"Are you _sure_ you don't want me to stand watch?" Carlos asked now, watching her stare at the ground and make no motion other than even breathing.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"You were just staring into space. I thought you were falling asleep. Are you all right? I'm sorry if I offended you when I asked if you were bi. Really, I am."

"No, no, you didn't offend me. It's fine. I was just thinking about whether or not I really was."

"Well? Are you? Or did you not decide yet? It's okay if you didn't decide, Val told me that it took her three weeks to completely make up her mind."

"I don't think I am. I was thinking that maybe...I just like girls. Not guys."

"That's okay, too," said Carlos encouragingly, patting her shoulder. "I'll accept you no matter what. And of _course_ so will Val."

"I know she will." Gabby wondered what other aspects of her personality Val would or wouldn't accept; she found that the thought quickly filled up her mind and made her genuinely think.

"Are you _worried_ about what she'll think?" Carlos teased playfully as if he'd read her thoughts, poking her in the side.

Gabby laughed for a second before covering her mouth with her hand, afraid that Val would hear her and wake up. "Shut up," she whispered, poking him back in the stomach. When she showed no reaction, she reached with her other hand and began aggressively tickling him, giggling even harder as Carlos struggled to bat her hands off and suppress his laughs.

"Well, do you like her? I promise I won't tell. You can tell me, it's okay." This he said after she was too tired to continue torturing him any longer, and she took her hands off of him and leaned on them.

"Yeah. I've thought about it, and I definitely do."

"She's a good person to like. Second best to me. Only for you, it's the _first_ best."

"For _anyone_ , it's the first best. You're, like, the _last_."

"No need to be jealous, Gabriella."

"Whatever you say."

After this, there was silence again, a silence that persisted until another couple of hours, when both went back to sleep, and Carlos woke Val up for her watch.


	16. Valeria

"You look tired, Gabby," Val remarked the next morning, gesturing with the sandwich that she was eating for breakfast in order to emphasize her point.

"I didn't get much sleep last night," the girl responded through a yawn. What she was saying was evident in her behavior; her black eyes were on the verge of closing, she had been yawning non-stop ever since they had all woken up, and her movements were slow and droopy, as if she was trying her hardest not to fall asleep in the middle of her food.

Carlos looked as if he had that same tiredness, but he was better at hiding it; he stood up straight and smiled as he worked through his own food. "I couldn't sleep last night," he said to Val. "Not sure about Gabby."

"Me neither," said Gabby. "So much happened, and I couldn't fall asleep for _hours_."

Val nodded; she, too, had felt very stressed out about what had happened the night before, though she had gotten more sleep than her two companions. She continued to eat her sandwich, which had been her favorite before they had left on the journey. Now, however, it felt bland, borderline awful, and she wanted to throw it away and never eat that combination of foods ever again.

"What's that you're eating?" Gabby asked.

"The hell sandwich. It's made of pork, my favorite kind of meat, it has Parmesan, my favorite kind of cheese, it has tomatoes and cucumbers, my favorite vegetables, and it's on flatbread, my favorite kind of bread. I packed a whole bunch of these before we left, so other than when we stopped at taverns and stuff, this is the only thing I've been eating for the past two weeks. And now I hate them."

Gabby laughed slightly. "I can see how that happened. I hunted a bunch of deer and squirrels, _my_ favorite kinds of meat, so that I would always have food, but now I just want to throw away and never look at then ever again. I'm eating deer right now, and it's a good deer, but I fucking hate it."

"Want to trade?" Val suggested. "I've never had deer. It sounds good."

"Yes, _please_ ," Gabby said desperately, handing the leg to Val and receiving her sandwich, which she bit into eagerly just as Val took a bite of the deer.

She had braced herself for it to be terrible, but it was _good_ ; the meat was juicy and tender, and it had a flavor unlike any that she had ever experienced before in her life.

"This is amazing!" she said out loud, giving a thumbs up with her free hand.

"Yours is good, too," said Gabby through a mouthful of the sandwich. "Can I always eat your food from now on?"

"Yes, please do. I never want to eat a sandwich ever again."

"We've got ourselves a deal." Gabby held up a hand for a high five, and Val accepted it.

After they had eaten, but before they left, Carlos pulled Val aside.

"Remember when you used to have a crush on Gabby?"

"Yeah, after I had met her but before I got to know who she was. Why?"

"Do you still feel that way?"

Val thought for a couple of moments before speaking. "When I was first getting to know her, I thought that I didn't, but now I'm realizing that she's actually a good person, so I think I still might. Why do you ask?"

"No reason, I was just curious."

"Carlos, you aren't trying to play matchmaker for me, are you?"

"I wasn't planning on it, but now that you give me the idea..."

"CARLOS!" Val lightly shoved him forward, and he burst out into laughter.

"I've already accepted that she's straight, besides," said Val. "She hates women."

"Hey, you never know. You might still have a chance."

"Come on, be realistic. Like me. I don't have a crush on her anymore, I've accepted that she doesn't like me back. I'm looking for another object for my advances."

"Whatever you say."

Val rolled her eyes, punched her brother in the side for good measure, and moved towards their horses to leave.

When they got on, Val was in front at the reins, as was usual because she was a skilled horse rider and knew how to manage her own steed, and Gabby was behind her. Usually, Gabby's arms would be firmly by her side, usually gripping the saddle firmly, but this time, they were wrapped around Val's waist, and her head was leaning against her back, though she was so tall that the tips of her hair tickled her neck. Even though Val had told Carlos that she was completely over Gabby, and that she had long ago accepted that she was straight and would never feel the same way about her, with this comforting feeling, combined with the stinging of the cool wind against her face and ears, she was no longer entirely sure.

Val shook her head to clear her mind of whatever she was thinking, focusing instead on the landscape, which was quickly passing by.

 

"Get these," Carlos suggested a couple of hours later, when they were at the market, and he was holding up a pair of trousers from the pile in the wagon that was being sold. "They look like they're about your size, and they're dark, so if you get dirt on them, then it won't show up."

Val wrapped the blanket tighter around her - it had begun to slip - and looked at them more closely, feeling the fabric between her fingers. "They look more formal, and there's not enough room to be flexible. Maybe ones that are this color but a different style? I think I saw some good ones at the bottom."

"Oh, yeah, you're right," said Carlos, putting them down and resuming his digging. Meanwhile, Gabby was holding up several tops, confused expression on her face.

"What's the purpose of this one?" she asked. "It _literally_ only covers your top. Up to here." She gestured with a hand at a spot on her chest an inch or two above her rib cage.

"That's a summer top, I think," said Val. "Some girls think it looks good."

"It's _weird_. Anyway, what do you think about this one?"

"Doesn't look comfortable to me. Maybe this red one?"

After another couple of minutes of choosing and holding them up to Val's body to make sure that they fit, the trio finally picked out a pair of trousers and a shirt that were most likely made for men and walked over to the seller, who had a strange expression of anger on his face.

"You know women aren't meant to wear trousers and tops?" he asked, though it was less of a polite query and more of an angry accusation.

"It's your job to sell, not to question," Val snapped, practically shoving the clothes into his hands.

"I'm just saying it ain't right, that's all. I have some lovely dresses in the other wagon-"

"What I'll be doing is a lot of moving around, and that's not exactly convenient for a dress. Trousers and a top are much more suitable."

"Well, women shouldn't be doing these kinds of things-"

"I don't care. Besides, in this kingdom, both men and women can be anything they want to be. My sister, for instance, dreams of being a knight. And 'being whatever you want to be' includes wearing whatever clothes you think are suitable for that. So how about you sell me what I want to buy and shove your outdated opinions up your-"

Cutting her off, Gabby grabbed Val by the waist, picked her up, and carried her away before she could finish while Carlos paid for the clothes and, Val could hear, apologized profusely. When he returned, he was holding a pair of shoes, and Gabby was picking Val up and putting her on the horse, while she was still protesting.

"I'm just saying, it's _not fair_ that we have a woman as the ruler, and people still have these opinions. It's _not fair_."

"I agree," said Carlos. "I agree completely. But we're trying to get through this journey with as little conflict as possible. Remember what I told you about talking less and smiling more?"

"Yeah, but-" Val cut herself off when she saw Carlos's exhausted face and the deep, long sigh that he was holding back.

"Fine. I'll try."

Carlos gently touched her shoulder before walking over to his own horse. "Thank you. That really means a lot, Val."

"Yep."

During the next week of traveling, all of Val's suspicions about the nature of Gabby's character proved true as she crossed from the strange limbo that they had been in to true friendship. Now, instead of awkward small-talky conversations about the weather every once in a while, they stayed up late all night, curled up under their blanket while Carlos stood watch, having whispered conversations about the kingdom and plans for the future and their lives.

Gabby _was_ a good conversational partner for these things, Val slowly began to see; she was smart, she read little bits and pieces of what she considered interesting news, and she personally experienced many of the issues that Val only learned about in her classes. There were many things that the two agreed on but also many more where their opinions differed, though they complemented each other so well that it didn't matter, and they could freely have peaceful debates without fear of offending the other.

Val dived into Gabby's mind like she had never dived into anyone else's before, and it was a nice feeling, and Val was almost one hundred percent sure that despite their rough start, she could now freely call the other girl her closest friend, closer than even Carlos or Amelia. They were in the middle of a conversation about the kingdom's economic policies, which Val had been learning about in her government classes, when Carlos suddenly pulled the reins on his horse, bringing it to a full stop.

"What happened?" Val asked, confused.

"According to the map, we're here," he said. "But there's nothing here. It's an empty clearing."

Val looked up, above Carlos's head, at the field. It was ashen and dirty, as if there had been something there, once. Now, however, there was nothing, only trees and weeds and a sense of hopelessness.

Gabby, behind her, was silent as well, and when Val turned around to look at her, she could see that her mouth was slightly open, and her eyes were filling up with tears. _Three weeks. Three weeks, and all of that for nothing._

"Whoever burned the castle library must have ordered this one to be burned as well," Carlos said, but it sounded to Val as if he was only saying that to say _something_ , to escape the horrible, horrible silence that the group was still drowning in.

"This _can't_ be it," said Val stubbornly, even though she was trying to convince herself, to deny the obvious truth that this was the end of their journey. Hoping against hope, she hopped down off of the horse and walked over to the barren field, immediately slumping down on her knees, feeling completely empty as she stared down at the earth.

"Val, come back," said Carlos. "Val, please. We've reached the end, and we've found nothing. Let's head back. Val. VAL!"

But his words were completely numb to her, as if they were on the moon, while she was still on earth, staring at the ground and wondering how life could be so painfully, painfully unfair.

A couple of seconds and a set of footsteps, and Gabby was behind her, arm on her shoulder, also on her knees, but looking at Val and not at the ground.

"Maybe there's a clue here," Val whispered, grateful to be around someone who might be able to understand.

"Okay, let's look," said Gabby, hand reaching up, forearm wiping her eyes. "Let's look, and if we don't find anything, then we have to head back. Promise me that, Val, okay?"

Her black eyes were pleading, desperate, face folded into an expression of sympathy.

"Fine," said Val, breathing out for a very long time. "I promise. For you."

"Good."

The two girls began to search the soil, digging through the ashes and through the dirt, though it seemed to Val as if Gabby was only looking through the surface, while she herself was digging as deeply as possible, hoping against hope for something. However, after a couple of minutes, it was Gabby who pulled out a piece of paper, grinning triumphantly.

"You were right," she said as she walked back over while inspecting it. "Sort of. There's nothing on it."

"Let me see." The weight lifting off of her chest only slightly, Val took the small slip from Gabby's hand, lifted it towards the light, and looked at it.

The material was thick and slightly darker than white, and it had a familiar texture to it. As she wondered why the edges were burned while the center wasn't, she realized that the texture came from the book that she had found about the Meynes, and the paper was most likely ignimium paper, just like those last few pages that were by some sort of miracle not destroyed.

"Carlos, do you still have those matches?" she called to her brother, who was getting off his horse and walking towards her.

"Yeah, they're in my pocket. Why?"

"This paper might be ignimium. I'm going to try and set it on fire to see if anything shows up."

Carlos handed Val the box of matches, and she pulled one out and set it on fire. The three watched the paper burn expectantly; sure enough, the dark ignimium ink soon began to show up. _We will never fall, only rise._

_But they fell. They fell, and so did the Meynes, all because of whoever was terrible enough to obliterate an entire fucking family from the pages of history._

_Maybe I was wrong. Maybe this isn't anything important, just an inspirational message, like_ The Meynes will rise again.

More words began to show up in the same dark ink. _The smoke goes the same way the wind blows. And with it, it brings ashes._

"It must be some sort of clue," said Gabby. "I don't know what it means, but no one would write that for no reason."

"Which way would the wind blow, though?" Carlos asked, looking at the words, which were fading away as Val extinguished the candle.

"The Great Library Fire happened in April," Val remembered, thinking about her history classes, "so the south wind would be happening, blowing the wind _north_."

"So maybe, the North Library was relocated even further north?" Gabby suggested. "Maybe 'the ashes' are the foundation for the new library."

"It's a long shot, but it's worth a try," said Carlos. "Do you guys want to see if this is right?"

"Let's at least try," said Val. "The worst thing that could happen is another couple of weeks added to our trip."

"All right."

During the next week, the trio continued to travel up the road that they had been taking. It was still the summer, so even during the nights, and even farther and farther north, it wasn't so cold that they froze to death, and it was easy to be comfortable with a set of jackets, which they were able to purchase in a marketplace. After a couple of days, during which even Val slowly began to lose hope that the rebuilt North Library even existed, they arrived at a building that was near the top edge of Carlos's map. It was big and made of wood, but it had a homey feel to it, and through the small windows, Val could see rows and rows of books.

"This _must_ be it," she said.

"Well, then, let's go in," said Carlos, instantly getting down off his horse and practically racing to the building.

When the three walked in, Carlos in the lead, followed by Val and then Gabby, the only person there was a short woman with blonde hair in a high bun. She wore big, round glasses and a green pantsuit, and she looked as if she were one of those people who was perpetually nervous. She jumped when Gabby accidentally slammed the door behind her, turned around, and began to back away, as if she was subtly reaching for a weapon.

"What do you want?" She addressed Carlos, because he was in the front, Val barely behind him and Gabby hanging back significantly.

"Please, ma'am, we mean no harm. Is this the North Library?"

"How did you find us?" She had finally reached the wall, and her right arm, still shaking, began to run along it, looking for some sort of a secret drawer.

"We went to the site of the original North Library." Val stepped in, trying her best to appear friendly. "We found a message there, decoded it, and found our way here. Our business is that we have a girl who might be a Meyne. I found some records of the Meynes in a book in the castle library. We just want to find proof that she's a Meyne, and then we'll leave."

The small woman stood up on tiptoes, and both Carlos and Val stepped aside so that she could look at Gabby, who stepped forward and pulled the dagger out of her belt. The woman inspected it before speaking.

"This alone is overwhelming proof, but we've been keeping records about the Meynes ever since we heard the news of them being obliterated. Any possible Meyne is a friend at this library. Feel free to come in. You are always welcome."

Just as Val moved toward the door to their right, which she assumed led to the actual library as opposed to the front parlor, Carlos and Gabby following, the woman grabbed him by the arm.

"Not you. I'm sorry, but we don't trust men in this library ever since Nicolas Greyhawk started the Great Library Fire."

"You don't know that for sure," said Gabby in protest. "And besides, he's my friend. He would never start a fire. He'll leave his matches behind if he needs to. Right, Carlos?"

"You never know, though. And the proof that he did is overwhelming. Either he stays behind, or you don't come in at all."

Val was ready to just agree to her terms and leave, but Gabby was holding her by the hand, keeping her in the room as she considered, angry expression on her face.

"Fine," she said eventually. "Carlos, you can wait outside. Let's just go already."

"And another rule," she said. "You only have eighteen hours to find whatever it is you need to find. Once again, I'm sorry, but this is for safety reasons, so you don't do anything bad to our records. I don't want them to be destroyed just because I wasn't cautious."

Val saw Gabby visibly roll her eyes, but she nodded. "Okay. Let's go, Val."

Val, who was still holding her hand, led her into the room, and she couldn't resist a gasp of awe when she caught a glimpse of the library that had been the only goal in her mind for weeks.

It was a thousand times more magnificent than the paintings of the old Great Castle Library. The walls were decorated with paintings and tapestries, the smaller shelves along the sides with pictures and statuettes, and the shelves reached up to a height that must have been impossible, though there were ladders along the sides to help aid people who wanted to get to books that were high up.

She turned to Gabby and cracked her knuckles determinedly. "All right. So how are we going to do this?"

"I'll check this set of shelves, you check the next one. Look for _anything_ that might have to do with Meynes, or some sort of guided reference sheet. Libraries have those, usually."

"Okay. See you later. Good luck."

"Good luck to you, too."

Val made her way to the other side of the room, and she began to regret that she was wearing a shirt and trousers and not a dress; they felt constricting in this sort of nervous environment, whereas wearing a dress, especially her favorite shade of light blue, always helped her focus. _That doesn't matter, though. Don't think about that. All that matters is what we need to do._

Val began to scan the rows, looking for anything that might have remotely anything to do with the Meynes, whether it was a history of their kingdom, a listing of families, or a directory of daggers. All she could find, though, was science-related things, and it wasn't until she wasted at least an hour looking through every single book on one of the shelves that she realized that they were probably organized by theme or something.

Climbing down the ladder - she no longer regretted her clothing choice, a dress would have likely made her slip and fall - she immediately walked over to one of the room's walls and began to look for something that would help her find her way around the confusing library. Eventually, she found a binder of sorts, with a map that showed the shelves in huge rectangles, each one with a number on them. The next page had a list of numbers from one to fifty, each one with a topic on them.

Shelf number five, which was the one she was looking at, had to do with astronomy and other space sciences. She looked for the ones that would apply to the Meynes, which included history, physical science (because of the obsession with fire), chemistry (because of the recurring theme of ignimium, which must have had some sort of significance), and warfare (because of the dagger). Then, she found Gabby, squatting down to look at a lower shelf, tapped her on the shoulder, and showed her the directory.

"This is very helpful," said Gabby with approval. "So how about I take these, and you take these. We'll get done _much_ faster now. Thanks, Val."

"No problem."

Val went over to the shelves that Gabby had suggested she take and began looking through them. Here, she had more progress; she was soon straining under the weight of the books that she brought over to the chairs that were near the back wall. This was fascinating material, she realized as she leafed through the pages, and she would have loved nothing more than to just spend a day or two in the library reading it all, but she had a job to do, so all that she did was briefly look at each page. And slowly, a picture began to form out of the stray scraps of paper, and it was a picture that turned her entire world upside down.

_Gabriel Greyhawk and Alexander Meyne, best of friends, conquered the kingdom of Canterbury together, their wives by their side. Once they had conquered it, they didn't know which one of them should be the ruler, so they made an agreement. Gabriel, so patient and kind that he was known by commoners as Gabriel the Good, would rule during peacetime. Alexander, cool and strategic but gentle with his friends and loved ones, would rule during wartime. They built two castles side by side, the Garden of Friendship uniting them to symbolize the love that their families had for each other._

Gabriel Greyhawk was a household name in the kingdom; Val knew him very well, and her younger brother admired him because they shared the same name. He had supposedly conquered the kingdom alone. Who was Alexander Meyne, and why had he been erased from history?

The answer came in the next few pages, which described Gabriel's son, Ramon, and Alexander's twin children, Margaret, or Meg, and Robert.

_It was when Ramon, who was gentle and kind like his father but had a hot temper, and Margaret and Robert, who were cool and strategic twins, inherited their respective thrones, that things began to go downhill. They feuded for reasons unknown to history, despite their parents' attempts at stopping them, and they passed on this toxic hatred to their children._

Val skipped over the next chapter or so, which described in great detail the reigns of the Greyhawks and the Meynes but said nothing more about the feud, until she reached the chapter about Nicolas Greyhawk the Second, king of the fifth generation of Greyhawks.

_Nicolas was a Greyhawk only in name; the long-standing house had never seen anyone like him before in their lives. There were rumors that he was the child of some sort of a beast, not human at all. His temper was like a forest fire, feared by everyone, and the worst thing was when he would contain it and then release it, compounded tenfold, at once. He was fairly harmless until he feuded with King James Meyne the Fourth, who had a temper to match his own, eventually leading to a civil war, in which the Meyne side was defeated at Three Hills. To celebrate his new victory, King Nicolas banished the Meynes from the castle, making his own family the rulers in both peace and war, and it is heavily suspected by North Library historians that he was the one who started the Great Library Fire in order to destroy all historical evidence that there was ever another ruling family._

Val slammed the book shut and stared at it for a long, long time. _What the hell? How could I not know about this?_

An entire family, obliterated from the pages of history. It felt surreal, and Val suddenly got an overwhelming feeling of dizziness. She continued to sit, staring at the book as she felt weak, as if she would faint at any moment.

Suddenly, Gabby came, practically running from among the shelves and holding a notebook.

"Val, I found a diary and a book that says it's a directory," she said. "The diary is a Meyne loyalist that is trying to flee and rally up a resistance, and the directory is a listing of people who are _still_ loyal. And I also found a book about who the Meynes even are. Are you okay? You look really dizzy. I'm worried."

Although Val still felt faint, she found it in her by some miracle to tell Gabby what she had discovered from the history book that she had read. When she was finished, Gabby looked just as shocked as Val herself felt, and she stepped forward, looking at the book with genuine surprise.

"Wow," she said. "That explains a lot from this." This she said as she held up the small, worn away green book.

"What did it talk about?"

"Apparently, James Meyne, his wife Angelica, and their children didn't even flee the _capital_ , let alone the kingdom. They kept the dagger, made their children promise not to ever give it away to anyone, no matter what, and to tell their own children the same. At first, James tried to rally up a resistance, but he was found by Nicolas Greyhawk's men and murdered. After he died, Angelica tried to continue his cause, this time bringing other royal families into it, but very few followed her because she was a woman. There was a small rebellion, though - it looks like it happened before the Great Library Fire - but it was quickly stamped out, and Angie Meyne sort of retreated from the spotlight after that and focused on raising her children."

Val looked at Gabby, who looked as if she was becoming very passionate about this, and continued to focus on the picture that the book had painted, adding details from what Gabby had said.

"Gabby, what did your parents tell you about your dagger?"

"It had been passed on through my family for many generations, and judging by its wear, it was around ever since the kingdom was created. And my father had been told by his parents, and his mother had been told by her parents, to never give it away to anyone." Her eyes widened as she sat down in the chair next to Val. "So does that mean I'm a Meyne?"

"Probably. Let's look at this book about the Meyne history."

Gabby opened it and placed it on her lap, and Val leaned over her shoulder as she leafed through the pages. The Meynes, according to the book, were founded by Alexander, who had skin that was dark brown, strong muscles from lots of training, and a cool, strategic mind that made his enemies compare him to a snake.

"I know this," said Val. "It's in this history of the kingdoms. Let's move on."

They continued to look through the book, which described each member of the Meyne family in great detail. Traits that were present in each person, Val realized, were dark brown skin, big, curly, hair, and large height. Many were also muscular, with even those who were described as training very little being at least somewhat strong.

Val had expected the realization that Gabby was a Meyne, the overwhelming proof, to come suddenly, hitting her in the face and shoving her into the conclusion. However, the realization was slow, and the evidence took her by the hand and guided her to realize.

"The dagger," she said aloud. "The descriptions. The fact that _they never left the capital_. Gabby, you _have to_ be a Meyne. It just wouldn't make sense if you weren't."

Gabby nodded. "I didn't think we'd find anything, honestly, but hey. I never thought I'd become friends with you, but here we are."

Both of them smiled slightly as they took the books with the relevant information and put the other ones back on the shelves where they belonged. Suddenly, Val jumped up and squealed.

"Gabby, we _won_. Why aren't we happier about this. We finally did what we've been trying to do for _weeks!"_

"I think I'm just feeling shock," said Gabby. "Anyway, why are _you_ excited about this? _I'm_ the one who's actually a royal. A _princess_ , even."

"Don't you hate royalty?"

"I do. But royalty means money, and I like money. I still don't get why you're so excited about this."

"Gabby, I was devoted to figuring this out from the start. You just sorta...tagged along."

"But _still_. I'll never understand you."

"Says the girl who hated me for, like forever. You're such a mystery to me, even now."

"That's what I try to be." Gabby bowed sarcastically, making her face at the same level at Val's, and it was at that point, combined with the euphoria that was suddenly kicking in, that Val stopped thinking and instead grabbed the other girl by the back of her neck and leaned in to kiss her.

Gabby was still at first, shocked, but just as Val began to wonder if she would pull away, she began to kiss back, standing up and pulling Val up so that she could stand on tiptoes and they could continue to be on the same level. It seemed as if Gabby had never kissed anyone, and she probably hadn't, and neither had Val. Their kiss was nothing like Val had imagined kissing anyone to be, based on romance novels and her friends' gossip; it was nowhere near as graceful and smooth, but Val was so happy that it was even taking place that none of that mattered. When they pulled away, Gabby was staring at her with a strange mixture of happiness and shock.

"I think that _I'll_ never understand _you_ ," said Gabby. "For example: how the hell do you manage to be so amazing and _read my mind_ perfectly? Because I was literally _just thinking_ about how you would never kiss me. And then you did."

Val beamed. "I wasn't thinking, not really. Hell, I didn't even know if you liked girls."

"Well, I do. So thank you."

Val took Gabby's hand without a second thought and led her down the rows of bookshelves to the two chairs.

"We still have time," she said. "And there are a lot of books here that I want to read. Want to come with me?"

Gabby nodded wordlessly, stopping along the way to pick up an interesting-looking book about the history of technology in the kingdom. Val, on the other hand, picked up the history book that had turned her world upside down. When they sat down, they sat in the same chair, Val on top of Gabby's lap, and said nothing more for a long time.


	17. Gabriella

During the course of her life, Gabby had never truly gotten the chance to study the topics that she had been interested in. Each day was a blur of survival, negotiations, and taking care of two young siblings, and it felt as if she had never truly gotten a childhood with all of the tragedy that had happened in her life. And so she enjoyed this soft moment in all of the chaos, reading about the fascinating world of technology, Val leaning against her with her own history, and if she ever had to define pure bliss, she would point towards this moment for reference. Lost in thought, neither of them realized how much time had passed until Gabby thought to look at the clock, which showed that they had an hour left. She relayed this information to Val, who jumped, as if she had fallen asleep.

"Think about it," Val said, smiling and looking up at her. "We can go home. I can see Gabriel and Mili and Maria. I've missed them."

"We still need to figure out what we're going to do about what we've just found out, though," Gabby pointed out. "I mean, we can't just realize that there was another royal family and then do nothing with it."

"You're right," said Val. "We can talk about that with Carlos, though."

Gabby nodded. "That would probably be better," she said as she put her history, which she had finished over the course of several hours, away.

"How was your book?" Val asked as she put her own into the bag that she had brought with them.

"Really interesting, actually. I learned a lot of new information. When I get back, I'm going to try and buy more books about this. I want to learn as much as I can."

Val nodded. "I had to do a project on technology in the kingdom once. I stayed up  _ all night _ reading."

Gabby patted her shoulder affectionately. "Of course you did."

Both of them were at a loss as to what to do, so they continued to sit, legs intertwined, talking about everything and nothing, and Gabby finally began to confess the secret that she had told no one before.

"I was only a little girl, and Simon was a bit younger than me, and Lizzy was barely a baby, when we were huddled in our tent, and our mom brought in our dad's dead body. He died by petty thieves. And she promised to take care of us, but then she ran away and left us with nothing but a bit of food and the family dagger. She died, too. So I was an orphan."

"I'm sorry. That's terrible." Val looked shocked, practically horrified, but also curious about how the story continued. So Gabby continued to speak, letting a weight loose off of her shoulders.

"And I walked from door to door and asked for help, and there were so many housewives there. You know, like single women, or mothers, or just old grandmas. And  _ none of them _ would help me. All of them just hit me and told me to leave. It was only men who helped me, even when their wives or their mothers told them not to. So that was when I started hating women. And then, later on, they didn't help me with anything except for giving me fashion advice and calling me ugly and telling me to get married as soon as I can before no man would want me. So I  _ fucking hate _ every single woman in the world. If it were up to me, they would be in a different kingdom. All of them. I never want to hear women's useless, unhelpful babbling ever again."

All of Val's curiosity had disappeared, replaced by horror and the hints of anger. Briskly, she stood up, took the bag, and looked at the clock.

"Our time's almost up. Just fifteen minutes left. Might as well leave."

Gabby nodded, and she wanted to apologize for whatever she had done to offend the girl, but she found that her mouth was closed in a line of stubbornness. The two left, where they were greeted by the small woman asleep on a chair and Carlos standing in the parlor looking bored.

"Oh, hey, Val. Gabby. Did you find anything?"

Instantly, Val's face became passionate, excitement lighting up her eyes. "Yeah. We found proof that will  _ definitely  _ convince people that Gabby is a Meyne. We packed it all in here. Thank  _ goodness  _ we didn't give up, now people will definitely believe us. Especially our parents." She proceeded to relate to him everything that they had learned, and when she was done, Carlos had the same shocked expression that the two girls had had when they learned about the reality of their kingdom's unrecorded years.

"Wow," said Carlos. "Good thing we came here, right? We should take this to our parents. They'll  _ definitely  _ believe us."

"What if they don't listen to reason, though?" Gabby asked. "I mean, even with the proof, this is really new information."

"True," said Val. "We have a directory of people who are loyal to the Meynes. Show Carlos, Gabby."

Gabby pulled it out and handed it to him. "I'm going to go around to these people with copies of the proof and the dagger, and I'm going to raise an army that I'm going to lead to the outskirts of the city. You can send me a messenger hound if your parents don't listen, and I'm going to bring it into the city. If they believe you, I'll just send everyone back home or something. Sound like a plan?"

Carlos nodded. "Sounds like a _great_ plan. Val and I can finally head home."

He reached into his pocket, pulled out some of the silver that he had brought, and handed it to Gabby. "Take this and buy yourself a horse at the market. It's going to be a really long journey if you make it on foot, and Val and I need our horses to go home."

Gabby took it and put it in her pocket. "Thank you. This really means a lot to me."

Carlos smiled. "Of course. Anything for you." Suddenly, he jumped forward, pulled her into a hug, and gently sobbed on her shoulder.

"Good luck, Gabby. Be good out there. I know you can convince people. I believe in you."

Gabby patted his back, and she could feel the hints of tears in the corners of her own eyes. "Thanks, Carlos. You, too."

They pulled away, Gabby gave Val a quick wave (she didn't look like she was ready to talk any more), quickly made paraphrased notes of the proof, took the directory, which also had a map of the families' locations, and moved out onto the road. 

Once she had walked a little bit, she let out a loud sigh. She was going to have a long journey ahead of her.


	18. Valeria

As Val and Carlos rode their horses, complete with the proof that they had found, on the long road back home, and the initial excitement disappeared and nervousness about what would come next began to set in, Val had expected to feel exhaustion. Although she had managed to sleep in the library, she had, over the past few weeks, not gotten much sleep overall, and they had been traveling for a long time with few breaks. However, her body was covered with a fog of intense anger, anger that covered all of her other emotions.

Who did Gabby think she was? _No one_ had the right to hate an entire group of people, no matter how many representatives from that group had done her wrong. Especially when she was _part_ of that group, and when she had become friends with and even _kissed_ a member of that group. And when Val thought about how the "all women" that Gabby hated included not only her, but all of her friends, her two younger sisters, one of whom was only a _baby_ , and even her mother, the anger intensified until it became her, covering her entire existence and bringing a roughness to her motions.

"Val, are you okay?" Carlos asked her when they stopped for the night, and Val bit into the deer that Gabby had given her, still with that roughness, and spilled an entire puddle of juice onto her pants.

"Yeah. Just stressed out because of what our parents will say." This was only half of the truth.

"Hey, don't worry. Mom's always been willing to listen to reason, and if she won't, Dad can probably convince her. And if neither of them believes us, then we have a backup plan."

Val nodded. "I know, I know. But still."

Another couple of moments of silence, in which both of them finished their meal. Then, Carlos spoke again.

"It's not just that, is it?"

"No, it's not," said Val, never able to lie to her brother.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

Carlos nodded. "Okay. Remember that I'm right here if you ever want to."

"Thanks. I think I'll feel a bit better after some rest, though." Another truth, Val thought; most of her anger was probably compounded on her lack of a proper break.

"Okay. Good night, Valium."

"Good night, Carlbon."


	19. Gabriella

The first family that Gabby visited due to it being the closest to the library was one called the Blackwoods, who lived in Shadow Manor, a large castle-like structure made of brick that was painted almost entirely black. Just like in cartoon drawings of evil castles, there was a moat, along with a drawbridge that was pulled down a couple of minutes after she stood in front of it and demanded entry. When she was allowed into the parlor, she was accompanied by the two guards who had stood outside, and she was greeted by Lord Blackwood, who was tall and slightly portly and looked as if he was always angry, and his wife, Lady Blackwood, who was slightly shorter, very pretty, and had long brown hair that was done in a complicated pattern.

"Who are you?" he asked Gabby as soon as she came in, without even leading into the question with a "Hello."

"My name is Gabriella Meyne-" the combination of her name and the royal last name tasted weird on her lips- "and I have a directory right here that says that you're a Meyne loyalist? And I need your help to raise an army to reclaim my rightful place on the throne in Cantermound. I have the Meyne dagger right here." She pulled it out of her pocket to show him, and he looked at it for a solid minute before patting her on the back.

"Welcome to Shadow Manor, Gabriella Meyne. Of _course_ we will help you."

Gabby looked up at him with a smile. "Thank you. I promise I won't disappoint."

"Mind if I see that directory of yours?"

Gabby showed it to him, and he read it, crossing off some names with a pen that he pulled out of his pocket.

"These houses are either extinct or have given up on the Meynes. I'll order my servants to send messenger hounds to the remaining ones to save you the pains of traveling."

"Thank you, Your Grace. You're too kind."

"Anything to restore the Meynes to their rightful place. I'll go talk to my servants now. Elissa, take Gabriella to a guest room."

Lady Blackwood took Gabby by the arm, smiled at her warmly, and led her down many hallways - Gabby wondered if this was what Val had to deal with every day - until they reached a large guest room, where Gabby instantly went and placed her things.

"I like your hair, by the way," said Lady Blackwood. "Curls suit you, I think. I've always wished that I could have curls, but we all must make do with what we have."

Gabby felt very confused; this was the first time that she had been talked to about the feminine topics that she so despised without any hatred or aggression. "Thank you," she said, already wary.

"And your clothes suit you, as well. I must admit, I've always held a strong opinion against women in trousers, but there are some ladies, like you, that I simply can't imagine in a dress. I'm not saying you look like a man, so I'm very sorry if it came across that way. You have a beautiful body type."

Again, confusion; Gabby had never been called beautiful, unless it was by men who wanted to fuck her, and they had always reverted to calling her ugly when she rejected their advances. She said so to Lady Blackwood, only phrased less crudely, and she laughed softly.

"There are men who will stop at nothing to take a woman to bed, Gabriella, and they become very angry when nothing they try works. One time, I had a lovely gentleman who wrote me sonnets and gave me roses for months, even after I told him that I was already engaged to be married. When I finally yelled at him, he threw a heavy rock at my window." Lady Blackwood laughed again at the memory, and Gabby, now relaxed, joined in.

"It's drunks at the tavern, usually," said Gabby bitterly. "They say that no one will want to marry a tall, flat-chested, muscular girl. They call me ugly just because I'm all three of those."

"That's complete _non_ sense," said Lady Blackwood, rather angrily, and Gabby got the sense that she would have much rather used a ruder word. "Why, did you know that the wife of Alexander Meyne the First, Emma, looked very much like you? We have a painting of her, and when I first saw you, I was shocked at the resemblance. Do you want me to show you?"

Gabby nodded, now curious, and Lady Blackwood led her to a portrait hall that was covered with portraits of what seemed to be the various Meynes.

"We are the leaders of the Meyne resistance," she explained, "so when the Meynes fled and took their portraits with them, we were the ones to whom they were given. We guard them with our lives. Here she is."

The very first portrait on the left side was one of a tall, muscular man sitting by the side of an even taller, more muscular woman. Sure enough, Gabby realized, she looked like her: rising in height above even her husband, head full of curls (though the woman's were significantly longer), flat-chested, and with big, bulging muscles that were a sharp contrast to what looked like her teenage daughter standing next to her.

"Alexander once referred to her in a letter as 'the morning sun of Cantermound,' even though other people didn't seem to think so. There were rumors that she was a man in disguise, or half woman and half man, or even more ridiculous things, especially because she was hot-tempered and loved battle and participating in cabinet debates. She despised wearing dresses - you see how she looks pained in this one, like she wants to leave? She always complained about them in her letters to her husband or her family. And the entire country whispered about her ugliness behind the backs of the kings, but she didn't care. She always said that there were more important aspects to her personality than beauty, and if she ever, for any reason, needed reassurance about her beauty, she would ask her husband, not villagers who didn't even know her. She was my childhood hero for the longest time."

Gabby looked at Emma and imagined what it would be like knowing her, and whether, if she had been a mother living in the capital with her family, she would have let her in and given her kindness. And if she did, and she continued to help Gabby, teaching her her ways, would she continue to hate women?

Probably not. So then why did she hate women now?

"How did Emma feel about her fellow women?" Gabby asked aloud. "Was there anything in her letters about that?"

"Oh, yes," said Lady Blackwood. "There were rumors that she wanted to kill all women, but she constantly disproved them. She was a firm believer that even if she didn't agree with what women wanted to do, or their opinions on the world around them, _everyone_ deserved respect. She's actually the main reason why the oldest _child_ takes the throne, and not the oldest _male_ child. Letters show that she pestered Alexander and Gabriel about it until they relented. Yes, Emma hated feminine things, but she felt very strongly about her love for women."

Gabby nodded understandingly, and realization began to set in as she continued to stare at the painting. _She_ could be like that, too. Even though she would never wear a dress, she didn't have to hate women who wanted to. Or women at all.

After all, men had been unkind to her, too; a set of them had tried to rob her as a child, and two more had almost hurt Val. If she hated people based on what people similar to them did, she would end up hating everyone. And _that_ would just be inconvenient and unnecessary.

As she walked back to her room, thanking Lady Blackwood for showing her this painting, she thought about how she would need to apologize to Val.


	20. Valeria

After almost a month of traveling, Val and Carlos finally rode into the capital, arriving subtly with the influx of new visitors now that it was almost fall and the northerners wanted to go south for warmth. Even more subtly, they arrived at their castle, rode in once the gates were open, and walked to their mother's office, where she was most likely to be found in the middle of the day. Sure enough, she was there, writing a letter, Gabriel and Emilia playing with each other by her side. She looked up, confused, when they arrived, and her confusion quickly turned to shock once they walked in.

"Valeria? Carlos? Is that you?"

"Yes, Mom, it's us," Val said as she walked forward, hugging her mom, Carlos awkwardly joining in from the back. Tears flowed down her eyes as she held them, gently rocking from side to side, and Gab and Mili ran up and joined the group hug, beaming widely and squealing. The hug must have lasted a couple of minutes before she released it, slammed a hand on the desk, and screamed.

" _What the hell?_ " she shrieked. "You just ran off for _two months_. TWO. MONTHS! You could have _died_ out there, you could have been _kidnapped_ , you-"

"We left a note!" Val screamed back, looking up so that she could look her mother in the eye.

"Don't yell at me. You-"

"You yelled at _us!_ "

"I have a reason to be angry. You don't. Anyway, your note didn't explain much, and even with its existence, you don't have experience in the outdoors. You could have died out there. You should have brought one of the guards with you, or your father could have accompanied you."

"We told you, we had Gabby with us!" Val protested.

"I don't know Gabby. For all I know, she could be a murderous psychopath who robbed you and then left you for dead. And _stop yelling at me_ , for heaven's sake!"

"But Mom-"

Carlos grabbed Val by the arm, clenched it tightly, and pulled her aside. "I'm sorry, Mom," she said. "We behaved badly."

"You sure did. Thank you, Carlos, for admitting it when you're wrong. Valeria, you could learn a lesson from your brother."

Val glared at her mother in frustration.

"We brought something that you may want to take a look at," Carlos continued. "We have proof that the Meynes existed, and that their founder helped conquer Canterbury, and that they used to rule during times of war before they were defeated, banished, and erased from the historical record by Nicolas Greyhawk. It's right here, in this bag. And Gabby, you know, the girl that we brought with us, is a Meyne. And we came to you so that you could help us restore the Meynes to their rightful place on the throne."

"That's _ridiculous_ ," said the queen. "Nicolas would never do such a thing. And there is no proof in the castle library that the Meynes existed, so it is very likely that this proof that you brought home is fabricated."

"No, it's old," said Carlos. "And that means that it was written a long time ago, so it isn't fake. Please, Mom, just look at it."

"The Meynes aren't real," said the queen, anger beginning to cross her face. "Please never talk about them again. Just drop the subject. And both of you, go to your room. I'm tired now, and I have work to do, so I'll decide what to do with you later when I can think through my emotions."

Val felt her anger return, and she was on the verge of screaming at her mother, but Carlos clenched her arm tighter, forcing her to keep quiet as he pulled her away.

"Let's see if we've gotten a messenger hound about the arrival of Gabby's army," said Carlos. "If we did, let's send her one that we'll need it."

Sure enough, when they arrived at the messenger hound pen, the mailbox had a scrawled out message.

_Valeria and Carlos,_ it read, in small, formal script that somehow suited Gabby's personality,

_I have an army that I've positioned just outside the capital. It's fairly big; I haven't counted, but if needed, it could probably defeat the kingdom's army, which is good, because I don't want these lovely volunteer warriors to be tried for treason if we lose._

_I was, honestly, surprised by how quickly everyone joined me. I guess they've been biding their time for years for the arrival of a Meyne, me, to lead them._

_I have a request for you. Please go to John's tavern, you know the one, and check on my siblings. Notify me as soon as possible about their condition. I am very worried. If they're fine, tell them that I'll be home soon, and that I miss them and love them very much. Also, if Simon hears about my army somehow, tell him that he is not to join it, because although I have no doubt that he is a capable fighter, our army, as well as the capital army, is filled with men and women who are much, much more capable and can easily defeat him, even if he had an advantage._

_Also, Val, I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry for what I said in the castle library. I meant it at the time, and it took me time to realize that I shouldn't have. If I could go back right now and take it back, I would do so without a second thought._

_With love and friendship, Gabriella Meyne_

"What did she say?" Carlos asked as he began to get a piece of paper and a pen to write an answer.

"Nothing important," Val said, appreciation rising in her at Gabby's willingness to apologize, as well as apprehension about what would happen next in the kingdom.


	21. Gabriella

When Gabby saw a clean-looking dog bound up the hill and to the small group of houses and tents that was currently housing the army that she had put together, she was in her room, talking to the lords of the families that supported her about battle strategy.

"We need to surround the capital and then storm it," she was saying, and Lord Innotus was about to respond when he was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in," Gabby called. It was a young servant boy holding an envelope.

"A message from the prince and princess," he said shyly, and Gabby quickly took it and opened it.

_Gabriella,_

_I suppose I'll have to call you Your Highness soon. Anyway, I wanted to give word that the army will, in fact, be needed, because our mother wouldn't listen to reason, and neither would our father when we thought to come to him. If there's anything at all that we can do to assist its smuggling into the capital, then come to us; we will be more than happy to assist._

_We've fulfilled your request. Lizzy says hi, Simon wants you to reconsider about his joining the army. I asked John to make sure that he stays at home and doesn't sneak out. I must warn you, it's going to be a bit difficult to get around from now on; we're grounded again, and we can only go out under the watchful eye of one of our parents or the_ trusted _guards (as opposed to someone like Alexandra or William, who will just take us out and then abandon us). However, the Meyne cause will prevail, and we will continue doing whatever needs to be done._

_Val would like to say that she accepts your apology and will be delighted to see you again when you go into the city. I share the same sentiment, except for the apology, because I have no idea what you're apologizing for._

_Your friend, Carlos_

Gabby looked at the letter and almost crumpled it completely in her hand.

"Lords," she said, "the prince and princess would like to say that the army will, in fact, be required. "We must start planning out a final battle strategy immediately. Bring your battle advisers if you must."

She waited for a couple of minutes; some of the lords, notably Lord Blackwood, allowed their wives to enter the room with them, while others brought men and women who must have had an official office of some sort, because they dressed more formally than the other servants, had badges, and wore a smug look on their faces, which intensified when they saw Gabby sitting at the head of the table, capital map in front of her.

"Okay," she said. "We need to decide how we're going to attack the capital and force them to listen to us. I was thinking about bringing some of our people in undercover, with some moving to the castle and surrounding it and others holding it hostage from the inside. The main objective is to isolate it from outside help. Let no one go in and let no one go out."

"That sounds like a good plan," said one of the lords. "But the prince and princess already came to the queen. She would likely be very suspicious about the army. I heard rumors that people are being checked for weapons at the gates, just to make sure that no illegal activity is being done. Smuggling an entire army into the city is going to be difficult, if not impossible."

"That's true," said Gabby, now at a loss about what to do.

A woman in a bright yellow dress, whom Gabby recognized as Lady Whybert, raised her hand, and Gabby pointed her out to speak.

"Maybe we could smuggle in a small group of soldiers, stripped of all armor, one at a time, under the guise of visiting relatives in the capital or simply wanting to tour its sights. Then have them go to a spot in the city walls that has few guards, where some of our men could give armor and weapons."

"A good idea," said Gabby with a smile. "Organize a set of scouts to sneak around the city limits and find a place where armor and weapons could be smuggled in."

"My men can do that," Lord Greensmith volunteered. "Excuse me so I can send them on a mission."

Gabby nodded and waved him away. "So, out of that small group, about half, I'd say, to take out the city guards and open the gates completely for the rest of our army, and the other half to surround the castle and engage in battle there?"

A battle adviser whose name Gabby had probably heard but she could not remember spoke up, and Gabby almost laughed at how shocked he seemed that she was actually skilled and didn't need his guidance for every step of the way. "I think that's a good idea. It may take some time to take out the city guards without killing them - and I do not personally think that you should kill them - so my suggestion is that you do not engage any of the troops in battle until we have the larger army, at which point about half should be sent to surround the castle, and the other half to isolate the city."

"That's smart," Gabby acknowledged.

Another battle adviser, a woman whose name Gabby again didn't know, said, "The royal family is on your side, I think you said. I suggest asking the prince and princess to do something to keep a large majority of the city guard away from their duties. Also, when the army is engaged in battle, it is very likely that the queen will ask the citizens to help fight. If we want the royal family to take us seriously later during negotiations, then we shouldn't harm any of them. Tell the troops that if they see a citizen fighter, they are to step away and not engage with them at all.

Gabby nodded. "Thank you for your help, all of you. You heard the lady, tell your troops not to engage in battle with any citizen fighters."

Around the table, there were nods of agreement, and when Lord Greensmith returned, Gabby laid out the final plan.

"Once Lord Greensmith's scouts return, we will send a small band of soldiers, disguised as regular civilians, though the city gates. They will immediately go to the spot that the scouts have marked as the place with the least guards to await our other scouts with armor and weapons, at which point they will immediately go to the main city gates and force the guards away from them, opening them completely and allowing three-quarters of the army to come in. The remaining quarter will surround the city, forcing the guards away and keeping it closed. A third of the army that came in will guard the outside of the city, while the remaining two-thirds will go and surround the castle. Does that sound like a plan?"

The men and women around the table nodded in admiration.

"Good. Prepare your troops. Thank you for your help, all of you. The meeting is adjourned."

As Gabby walked to her room, she thought about how an earlier version of herself would have never allowed the women at the table to speak, or, if she did, she would have done so reluctantly, glaring at them until they finished saying their piece. _How times changed..._

While she was relaxing in her room, reading a book that she had gotten in one of the manor libraries, she heard a knock on the door.

"Lady Meyne?" a young servant girl asked. "There's a visitor for you. Says he's your brother."

_Jesus fucking Christ._ Gabby got out of bed, put on a jacket, and went to the front gates. Sure enough, Simon was standing there, accompanied by a guard, and he instantly leaped at her, wrapping his older - and much taller - sister into a hug.

"It's so good to see you again," he murmured.

"It's good to see you, too, but _why are you here?_ I told Carlos and Valeria to tell you to not come here, and Carlos said they did."

"They did, but I didn't listen. I wanted to come with you, Val. I missed you."

"Yes, but it's not safe for you in the army. You're going to have to stay _firmly_ in the camps. No one will be watching you to make sure that you don't sneak off, and you'd better not. I'm going to be out there fighting, but you aren't."

"Fine," said Simon. "I just wanted to see you."

Gabby ruffled his hair affectionately. "I'm glad you did. Why didn't you bring Lizzy if you just wanted to see me?"

"She wouldn't come. She said that she trusted Val, and if Val told her to not come, that was what she was going to do."

"Of course. You should have done the same. No matter. Come with me, we're going to my room. In a couple of hours, we're going to start battling. You can stay in there, or you can wander around, as long as a servant is always watching you. If I send you a messenger hound to go to your room and stay there, for example, if someone is going to storm the camps, then you do that. Promise?"

"Promise."

Simon nodded, and Gabby breathed an inward sigh of relief; now that her brother had come, and was going to possibly be in very real danger, she had started to worry that he wouldn't make it out alive.

She took his hand and clenched it while smiling down at him. "Thanks for that. So, tell me how these last two months have been for you. What did you and John and Lizzy do?"

"It was so much fun! We played games and took walks through the city and ate free food at his tavern."

"Free food is always good. Especially if it's John's."

"That's true. So how was _your_ trip?"

For the next couple of hours before the scouts returned, they talked in Gabby's room, catching up on the time that had been lost between them, and Gabby began to feel happy that he had come.

"The scouts have returned, Lady Meyne," one of the servants said about an hour or so later, while Simon was in the middle of telling a story about a brawl fight that happened while he and Lizzy were eating their dinner.

"Have they found the weakest spot?" Gabby asked, looking up and turning to face him.

"Yes. They've marked it off on the map and request your presence in the meeting hall."

Gabby turned back to Simon. "I'm sorry, Si, I have to go now. Remember, stay in here unless you have a servant with you. Tom, ask the other servants to keep an eye on my brother, okay? I'm worried about him."

"Yes, Lady Meyne."

Gabby gave her brother one last hug, put her jacket on, and went to the meeting hall, where the lords were looking at a map with the weakest spot marked with a red X.

"Shall we begin, then?" she asked. "It's the middle of the day, perfect for an upfront brawl that suits our strategy."

The men and women around the table nodded. "An hour to prepare ourselves, and we'll be ready," one of them said.

"I'll accompany the undercover troops," said Gabby. "I just need a couple of minutes to prepare my horse and pack a few suitcases to be less suspicious. I suggest that the rest of your soldiers do the same. Bring very few, we'll only need about fifteen, most of them spread out into small groups."

Everyone nodded and left to assemble their troops, while Gabby went back to her room, packed a small brown suitcase with some random clothes, and saddled her horse. Once she was ready, so were everyone else, so she split the band of fifteen people, including herself, into groups of three, each of which left separately, the group including her, hood of her jacket pulled low to disguise her most likely familiar face. Thankfully, the guards at the front did not disturb her or her companions after they gave excuses of visiting family or just seeing the capital.

As soon as Gabby rode into the capital on horseback, she was immediately astonished by how much she missed it. Although she had complained in the past about how much she hated how its residents discriminated against her and other homeless people, especially children, who needed charity, it was still her home, and she had friends in it that she felt a terrible urge to visit.

_It's going to be about an hour while the others come. We have time._

"I'd like to visit my sister," she said to the other two, who were sitting on their horses and looking as if they felt somewhat awkward. "We have some time before the others arrive, so if you want to, you may disperse, as long as you come back here soon."

One of the young boys immediately thanked her and rode off, while the other shook his head. "I don't have anyone that I want to visit. I'll wait here in case they come soon. Good luck with your sister, my lady."

"Thank you." Gabby rode off down the streets until she reached the all-familiar tavern owned by John, got off of her horse, tied it by a rope to one of the poles, and walked inside, where, to her surprise, it was relatively empty. In the corner, she recognized John chatting to what looked like Carlos while Lizzy braided Val's hair and occasionally pitched into the conversation. Taking off her hood, Gabby walked over to them and waved hello.

"Gabby!" Lizzy exclaimed, dropping the braid and running up to give her a hug. Now much happier than she had been, Gabby returned the hug, squeezing her youngest sister as tightly as she could until she protested, at which point Gabby let go and ruffled her hair affectionately.

"I missed you," Lizzy whispered, tears forming in her eyes.

"In the earliest days," said John, "before she fully realized that you were gone, she would wake up and ask me where you were. And I had to explain that you were gone but would come back soon, and she would get _so sad._ She would constantly ask me why you couldn't bring her along."

"It was too dangerous," Gabby explained to Lizzy. "For both you and Si. I didn't want either of you to get hurt. You know?"

"Uh-huh." Lizzy nodded reluctantly.

Gabby then turned to Carlos, who was standing up and looking somewhat bewildered as he and Val stood up to face her.

"Did something go wrong?" he asked her. "Why are you here? I mean, it's _really_ good to see you and all, but-"

Gabby laughed. "No, everything's fine, don't worry. The plan is that-"

"Shh!" Carlos covered her mouth, leaned in, and whispered, "Don't look now, but one of our guards is over there. If you're going to tell us about your plan, then be quiet about it."

"Okay," said Gabby, lowering her voice down to a whisper. "So, anyway, fifteen of us go in here, get weapons and armor and stuff from past the city walls, take out the guards from the city gate-"

"Don't kill them," Val warned, also in a whisper. "Some of them are my friends."

"We're not going to kill them, silly," said Gabby. "Just force them away somehow. Enough so that they're not watching it when we open the gates and let the rest of the army in. Half of it is going to watch the city walls and make sure that no one comes in or goes out, and the other half is going to go to the castle and isolate it. So, if you don't want to get trapped, I suggest that you stay away."

Carlos shook his head. "We'll actually be heading back soon. Unless you need our help or something-"

"We don't."

"Are you sure? Because we can sneak around if you need us to."

"Yeah, I'm sure. Unless you can somehow distract as many of your guards as possible so we don't have to face as many, then-"

"We can do that," Val put in. "It'll be easy. A lot of them are amateurs and will do _anything_ to get away from their work."

Gabby laughed. "I know the type. Thanks for your help, I'm really going to appreciate it if it helps us take them down."

Carlos nodded. "For the Meynes. And for you."

Gabby then turned to Val and took each of her hands in each of her own. She couldn't think of anything that would accurately describe her utter elation at finally seeing the girl again, and her utter elation at being forgiven for her past mistakes, so she just looked at her and gave a small, probably awkward smile, which Val returned before whispering, "It's so good to see you" and leaning into her chest and hugging her.

"I really have to go now," said Gabby after a moment of returning the hug and slowly pulling away. "I'll talk to you later."

Val nodded. "I can't wait to see you again."

Gabby smiled at the three other rather confused parties, gave them one last wave, left the tavern, got onto her horse, and moved back to the gates, where another young scout was waiting.

"They've all spread out to not be suspicious," he said when he saw her, "and they've decided to move to the spot one by one. I'm waiting here to tell everyone who went off to visit their relatives or whatever. I think you were the last one. Let's go."

The two rode side by side through the streets, as subtly as possible following the map, until they made it to the spot marked off by the X, where Gabby quickly climbed the wall and received two pieces of armor, two swords, and, to her relief, her dagger, which she had left at the base with the other weapons to avoid suspicion.

"Good luck, my lady," said the scout.

Gabby hopped down, gave the other young soldier one of the pieces of armor and one of the swords, and put down the other. Once both were saddled up, they joined the others, who were watching and waiting near that same spot.

"Let's go," she said to them with a smile. "Remember, first priority is taking out the guards at the gate and avoiding suspicion."

"I bought some rope and cloth at one of the markets," said one of them, a girl whose hair was cut so short that it was down to her ears. "We can tie them up and gag them so that they keep quiet."

"Smart idea," she said with a smile, and she saw the girl give a sheepish grin. "So, some of us can distract them and tie them up, while the rest open up the gates."

The girl who had brought the rope and cloth volunteered to create a distraction, while everyone else would help defeat, disarm, and tie up the guards before they could make a sound. Gabby was grateful that the lords and ladies had brought in their best fighters, because this definitely seemed like a job for people who were skilled.

Even with the combined experience, speed, and strength of fifteen men and women, it was a difficult job, they barely managed to tie up all of the guards at the gates before they could make a ruckus, and after it had happened, everyone felt spent, and they took a brief rest and a drink of water at the tavern before opening the gates for the rest of the army to come in. Once she had gotten their attention, Gabby divided the army and took half of it to the castle and allowed the other half to guard the gates.

_Val is in there,_ she thought as she looked at the large structure in the middle of the city and spread her soldiers out to surround it. _And Carlos. I hope no one is harmed._

She was at the front, and she could see a figure that must have been the queen in her office, pacing around and looking down and wondering what she should do next. Gabby almost felt sorry for her as she eventually opened her window and called down to them.

"Bring your leader in, please. I would like to negotiate terms of compromise."

_And_ , Gabby could swear she saw her mouth, _figure out what the hell is going on._


	22. Valeria

When Gabby, flanked on each side by a member of the royal guard, entered the negotiation hall, Val and Carlos were sitting in thrones to one side of their mother and looking at each other somewhat warily. The queen had been unprepared for this occasion, so her hair was down in lieu of the fancy hairstyles that she often wore, and her dress was a simple one. King Sebastian, too, had been unprepared, but he sat by her side just the same.

Val moved on from studying her mother and began to study Gabby, whose dagger had already been taken away from her. She seemed to shrink into her tall frame, and her face looked nervous and uneasy, most likely because she wasn't used to these kinds of situations. She smiled slightly in an attempt at reassurance, but judging from the fact that Gabby's nervous expression continued, she was looking at the queen and not at her.

"What is your name, child?" Queen Magdalena asked, interrupting Val's thoughts and looking at Gabby in front of her.

"Gabriella Meyne, Your Highness," she said in a loud, clear voice, all nervousness seemingly fading away.

"Meyne? That sounds like a royal last name, but you're obviously not a royal. Would you like to explain to me why you are lying to the queen?"

Val almost cried out, but Carlos grabbed her by the hand and squeezed it, practically digging his nails into the skin of her arm. "Now's not the time," he whispered. "Gabby's got this situation covered. Don't worry, Val."

Reluctantly, Val nodded, freed her arm from his grasp, and continued to look ahead.

"That's actually the reason for this rebellion, Your Highness," said Gabby, only now thinking to kneel down.

"You may rise. Please do me the honor of explaining what you mean."

"I've heard that your daughter and son, Valeria and Carlos, have explained to you about the Meyne family, who were erased from history by Nicolas Greyhawk after he defeated them in battle. I am the oldest remaining Meyne, according to proof that we found during our journey. According to Carlos and Valeria, you didn't listen to them and their proof, so my army, which was made up of families that were still loyal to the Meynes, and I wanted to surround the city and your castle in order to force you to bring us an audience. I genuinely apologize if we offended."

_Holy shit._ Though Val had had no doubts, _definitely_ no doubts, she was still surprised by how well Gabby handled the situation.

It seemed as if Queen Magdalena was impressed as well, because she nodded. "Could you please collect all of the proof that you found and bring it to my office? I will look over it in my free time and decide whether or not we should believe you. If I find you to be a liar, you will be banished from the capital."

Val began to shake again; Gabby's fate, the fate of the person who would be her _girlfriend_ if they had a conversation to make sure that it was okay on both sides, depended on whether her mother thought that the story that was _obviously true_ was plausible. She was shaking with fear and rage, and it took only Carlos's comforting hand on hers to keep her from jumping up and screaming in protest.

"Don't," he whispered. "Please, Val. Just don't."

"Meeting adjourned," the queen was saying, but all that Val focused on was her brother's face as he breathed in and out, in and out, in and out. She found her own breath slowing as she watched him, and once it had slowed completely, he took her by the hand and led her to his room, waving a brief goodbye to Gabby, who was walking away, probably to gather all of the proof. Once they were there, Val was free to release her emotions.

"Gabby's fate is totally arbitrary at this point," she said with a loud exhale. "So, like, Mom could look at all of the proof that we traveled for _two months_ to get and suddenly decide that it's not worth believing, and Gabby would be _banished. Banished!_ "

"I think Mom is going to look at the situation rationally," said Carlos. "Don't worry, Valium. When she didn't believe us, she was just clouded with fear and anger at us. We were wrong to bring it to her right then."

Val tried to imagine herself in her mom's position. She, too, would probably have her judgment clouded if she was under that situation. She decided to forgive her mother, though if her judgment was _still_ clouded, she would retract that forgiveness without a second thought.

_Maybe I'll run away with Gabby. She'll probably take Si and Lizzy with her, and I can take Mili. Mili would love adventure. Carlos...I don't think he'd come, but I don't know. Gabriel might, I'm not taking Maria because she's only a toddler and it would be hard to take care of her._

She was in the middle of having a fully formed plan, imagining what it would be like to live with Gabby, just them as renegades in the four halves of the kingdom. Maybe they would go to one of the Meyne loyal families and live there. Surely they would take them. Or maybe they would be like Gabriel Greyhawk and Alexander Meyne, and take their siblings and go to an uninhabited stretch of land and start their _own_ kingdom. _Yes. That would be nice. Me ruling during times of peace, or at least trying to, Gabby ruling during times of war. Just like in the old days._

Carlos didn't try to reach her, thankfully, so she was lost in her imagination while he did schoolwork. She would have to do schoolwork, too, she thought. She was probably, no, _definitely_ way behind on it.

After a couple of hours of just laying there, wondering what was going on in the negotiating room, they heard a knock on the door. It was a servant whom Val recognized as Emily, and she had an angry look on her face for some reason.

"Your Highness Carlos, Your Highness Valeria, your mother requests your presence downstairs."

Apprehension building, Val stood up, Carlos following behind her, and they followed Emily to the negotiating room downstairs. At the door was Gabby, and just before the trio entered, she grabbed Val by the shoulder and whispered, _We won._

"I asked for the castle historian to be there," Gabby explained later, when they were all crowded in Val's room (their mother, after learning that she and Gabby were dating, had forced them to have the door open), and she and Val were cuddling while Carlos watched and listened to her story. "He confirmed that we didn't make up the documents and that they were actually from hundreds of years ago. That, plus the dagger, plus some other proof that the loyal families had, and it was easy to make your mom believe us."

"And your charms, don't forget," said Carlos. "If it had been, say, our dear Valeria in there, she would have gotten do angry to negotiate properly."

"Not true!" Val protested, even though she knew it was.

"You know it is." Gabby poked her stomach affectionately. "And you're right, Carl. I think your mother likes me, personally. So if I tell her that we're dating, then she won't mind."

"I think she'll be happy that the person that Val eventually brought home was someone like you and not, say, someone like the people that Val usually hangs out with," Carlos said with a laugh.

"She likes Amelia," Val pointed out. "And a bunch of my friends from my meetings."

"You weren't going to date them, though," Carlos pointed out. "Dating you means that they have to be your second parent. And Gabby is _very_ qualified for that job."

"I'm completely ready," said Gabby. "I already have practice."

"So, are you excited for when the second castle that was burned down finishes construction?" Carlos asked.

Gabby nodded. "I saw the plans for it. I think the Innotuses had them or something. It's going to look great, and I can finally be within walking distance of you guys."

"I can't wait," said Val. "We're going to be together all the time now. You're going to come to my house and we're going to talk, like, _all the time_."

Gabby grinned. "I think I'm going to get tired of you with how often we're going to see each other. And you too, Carlos. I'm going to see you so much that I'm going to want to never see you again within a week."

"We're going to ban you from ever visiting us again," Carlos laughed.

"You won't need to."

"Gabby," said Val in the silence that followed, looking up at her with a newly serious face.

"What?"

"You know, I was thinking after that very first meeting, and if Mom hadn't believed you, then I would have run away with you. I wouldn't even think twice. I would just take Gab and Mili - and Carlos, if he was willing - and left the capital with you and Si and Lizzy."

"I wouldn't have let you," said Gabby, clenching her girlfriend tighter. "It's dangerous out there, and you're not that experienced. In fact, I don't know for sure that I would have even taken Simon and Lizzy. It's dangerous out there for them, too."

"You could have gone to one of the loyal families," Val pointed out. "They're everywhere in the kingdom. Or we could have just left and gone to one of those uninhabited islands and started our _own_ kingdom. Would that be cool or what? Just take the armies and go. They could live in the new kingdom with us. Help us guard it and protect it."

"You've been thinking about this a lot, haven't you?" asked Gabby, a smile crossing her face.

Val nodded. "Hours, actually."

Gabby pressed a kiss to the top of Val's head. "Well, now you don't need to. I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere."

"And that makes me the happiest person in the world." And it did.


	23. Epilogue: Gabriella

The first thing in the morning a year after she had become the partial queen of the kingdom, Gabby woke up, tied her growing hair into a ponytail, and went to the royal library, which continued to be in the Greyhawk palace, and almost tripped on the box that had arrived earlier that morning. Upon opening it, she saw that there were stacks and stacks of books, most of which were old and worn away, but they were there nonetheless.

 _Good._ Many of them had come from Meyne loyalist families, while some of them had come from villagers who had for some reason had them. All of them told the true story of the Meynes, and all of them were therefore very useful for the rebuilding of the library that Gabby had been actively putting her time and effort into for the past year. Val helped her, just as Gabby helped her with her cause, and both of them were getting closer and closer every day.

"Gabby, is that you?" a small voice asked, and when Gabby turned around from putting the books on the shelves, she saw that it was Lizzy, wearing a bright red dress, hair done in a beautiful fashion. Gabby still resented feminine things like that, so she continued wearing breeches and doing her hair in a ponytail, but Lizzy was her own woman, and she could do whatever she wanted.

"Yep. Do you need anything?"

"I was just looking for a book. Magda wants to read with me."

"What do you want to read about? There's plenty of history books, if you like that. Also science books and some poetry."

"Can I have a story book?" Lizzy looked confused at the prospect of reading anything else, which she had long ago deemed "grown-up books."

"Of course. Story books are on that shelf over there way in the back. Tell me if you can't find them."

Lizzy nodded and ran in the direction that Gabby had pointed, stopping along the way to give her older sister a hug. Gabby watched as she dug through the shelves, trying her hardest not to mess up any of the books, and her gaze drifted up to the wall, which Gabby was also helping rebuild, half with Greyhawk decorations and half with Meyne ones. On that particular wall, she was going to paint the slogan, "The Meynes will rise again," the slogan that had struck fear into the hearts of the ancient Greyhawks many years ago, and that even now stood as a symbol of the Second Meyne Rebellion.

 _The Meynes will rise again._ And they did. And _she_ did.


End file.
